It's about supply and demand. The more people who wants to buy it, the higher its price will be but when people refuse to buy it because they think it is overvalued at the moment then they would sell it. Due to the limited supply of a coin and the high demand for it, price would increase but if people do not want to use it then price decrease.

It is a combination of several factors but what factor that greatly affect the price nowadays is the news. The whales control the media so if they want to drive the value up, they would just release several good news and if they want to drive the value down they would release some bad news FUD after FUD and it would have a big effect because people will react regardless if it is just a rumor or an actual news.

We know that price of cryptocurrencies is volatile and if you are getting your income from it and you have fixed expenses then you need to have another source of income. The option for me would be to invest in real estate or in agriculture. If possible we should always have multiple sources of income because as we can see nowadays, we are in a bear market so we need bigger amount of coins if we need to pay some expenses that are only payable in fiat. If we have income in fiat then we do not need to convert some coins to fiat and there is a possibility of it increasing in value in the future.

Every time you have crypto profits OP, you should invest it to create another business so that you don't have to worry in case you have to pay for some expenses. Investing in real estate or in any business you are passionate about will do.

Although we can say that history repeats itself so there is a positive notion that 2018 would be the same of 2017 but we can see that some people are not that positive anymore because negative news is spreading again. I know that we should support bitcoin and not be affected by the bad news but then somehow doubts are inevitable. We know that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel but some people are impatient because they are used to seeing the price having parabolic move. Besides that, we are still on the 1st quarter of 2018 so maybe there will be a turn around in the next quarter.

Of course it will. Some people are just so negative when it comes to bear season. With back to back FUD, still bitcoin has been able to go back up. It survived the dumping of Mt. Gox trustee and the news of banning of crypto ads to some gigantic sites. There is still so much demand of the coin even though it has been going back and forth and seems not to rise to reach again a new all time high. It is still the king of crypto even though there are so many coins who attempted to steal the spotlight from it.

I am not afraid of KYC because I did not do anything wrong but I am just concerned that my personal information is totally expose to people to whom I do not know anything about and may use my information for their personal gain. I have seen some people who is selling e-mail addresses and I bet they got that e-mail addresses from bounties or airdrops since some required this information when we wanted to join. I am concerned that my personal information will be divulge to some people who may use it to access some of my accounts or may be use to do some illegal activities. There is also a higher possibility of them selling this information like what they do with e-mail addresses.

There are many airdrops that turned out well because the developers of the project push through with the project but there is a higher percentage of coins losing their value over time because people just decide to dump their coins. I may not be able to participate with this Ontology airdrop but I have participated in airdrops before that has valuable coins after a few months. If ever there are some requirements that I need to give supporting documents to receive the coins or what is known as KYC then I would have doubts because as what I've known, investors are the only ones required to provide it.

It is easier to be involved with cryptocurrency than in stocks because when you open an account for stocks, there are so many requirements before your application is approved and it is a given because it is regulated but still you need to wait for some time and if you lack a document, they would decline your application and the starting amount is quite higher compared to cryptocurrency. I know there is no minimum amount for cryptocurrency but at least it should be enough to cover the fee and then will let you trade as well.

Trading cryptocurrency is more risky than in stocks because the volatility is high but this is also the advantage of crypto because there is a lot of opportunities and since the market is added with new coins every day, there are so many pairs to choose from. If you trade in stocks, you should have a bigger capital to earn a bigger profit because the movement of price is small compared to cryptocurrency.I think these are reasons that there are more bitcoin investors than stock traders.

I am in a losing position and I believe majority of us are so what I do is just hold on to my coins because I cannot sell it now when its value has plunge that much. I am also thinking of another strategy that will let me trade even if it goes down. I know that shorting is one of the strategies but I am not that confident yet with myself doing shorting because I don't have enough funds to cover it in case the trade goes wrong.

Most of my income is from cryptocurrencies and I need to pay some bills so I need to convert some to fiat and nowadays it is not really the best time to convert as the equivalent value is small so I need to convert more coins. I am thinking of a more effective strategy to earn more coins by taking some jobs which would give me more coins and at least would break-even my losing position.

Though I want a mass adoption of cryptocurrencies because it would have a big advantage for us who are already adopters of it, I don't think banks would collapse and be replaced by cryptocurrencies. They are already studying blockchain technology so that they can still compete with cryptocurrencies. Besides that, it would be hard for all people to use cryptocurrency because not all knows how to use the new technology and has a network connection so transacting it would be impossible. Fiat money and cryptocurrencies would just co-exist like what is happening now. In the future maybe there would be more adopters of crypto but fiat will still be there.

It's a great guideline OP! People should always have due diligence when it comes to investing not only in ICOs but in all investment opportunities may it be crytpo related or not. What we have to remember always is that there is always risk involved when we put our money in another's pocket to grow. No matter how good the team is and there is a big potential in its project, if they have the intention to scam its investors then they would do anything to make it look real and then run away afterwards. There are successful ICOs but the team is gone after the ICO period. We should just invest money that we think we can always get back even if it would be gone. We should always have a back up plan in case something undesirable happens.

With the recent sell-off of bitcoin by Mt. Gox trustee, binance "hack", then google banning cryptocurrency ads, it seems that FUD is never ending. Add to it the opinion of "experts" again valuing bitcoin as zero and so we are heading south. There is just so much FUD that may pose a sign that the bear market is almost over? We may wait for sometime but this bear market will come to an end and we will go back again to our happy days. For those that still have funds, this is a good time to accumulate more and for those who don't have any then just hold. I can see some people already selling and decided to totally leave the cryptocurrency world.

I am not against regulation because it would mean that the government recognize cryptocurrency and more people would believe in it because it is already legal. Although there are many people who are interested in cryptocurrency, once they knew that it is not regulated yet, they are skeptic and some back out because they cannot held responsible anyone if ever something happens to their investment.

This would also prevent or at least limit the opportunistic people out there that uses the name of cryptocurrency mostly bitcoin just to scam other people. There are so many HYIPs appearing every day offering too good to be true returns and after a while they will be gone if they already accumulated their target amount. There are so many people who fall for this scam.

At least if there is regulation then people can request some documentations and know the people behind those companies to be held responsible in case something happens.

Depends how much you already loss. If you lost half of the value of your coin then just hold it or maybe if you have funds then you can buy more to average down. It is not really that best time to sell alts now because many of them are down and if ever you sell now and they continue to fall then you will sell again? Just wait OP and the alts will have its own time. You will just blame yourself after a few months if the alts you hold go up and then you will just say to yourself that if only you just have a little patience then you should have more profit.

It is up to you if you think you can recover your losses by selling your coins and trading again. If in your judgment you have done your best the last time you trade so what made you think you can recover your losses by doing the same strategy this time? Unless you have different strategy to recover your losses. What I can just suggest is to have patience.

I don't think banks would let that time come when many people would borrow from them just to invest in cryptocurrencies. In fact, some credit card companies do not allow nowadays transactions that will be paid to companies involve with cryptocurrencies.

This is the news regarding the banning of credit card companies to crypto currencies.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/naeemaslam/2018/02/05/banks-banning-cryptocurrency-purchase-on-credit-cards-why/#691d536a3cf9

As we can see, they are already making a move to prevent what you thought will happen if people decides to borrow money. They are just showing it that they are still in control and they will not let bitcoin "kill them".

Though there are many people who are against regulation for cryptocurrency because this would implicate centralization as oppose to what is the suppose purpose of it which is decentralization, I think we need it because there are so many people who are taking this opportunity to scam other people and not be held responsible for it because there is no applicable rule in which they can be convicted for the illegal doings that they committed.

The move to recognize cryptocurrency as security then would mean that ICOs would be regulated as well and this would prevent some people behind those ICOs that have the purpose to just scam people and take investors money and run away with it. Though there are issues regarding AML, as long as we can support where our money came from then I think we would be safe.

Yes because if it is not effective then many ICOs would not use this kind of campaign to promote the ICO. All people in this forum are interested in cryptocurrency though not all may be interested in ICO but still even if only 10% of the people in here would see the ICO and then invest in it would be a good thing because this forum has 1.5 million members.

Personally, if I see a high rank member wearing a signature or a trusted member then I would see what that site is all about because I believe that legendary members know better since they have been in the space for a long time so I would think that what they are promoting would have a potential. The same goes for a signature that I would often see regardless of the rank, I would click the link for that and see why many people are promoting it.

This would mean that government supports the usage of cryptocurrency which is a good thing because another country supporting it would mean being closer too mass adoption. However, I wouldn't pay in bitcoin because of the possibility that the value of my coins might go up so it would mean I paid higher than what I was suppose to pay so it would be better to pay in cash. I hope they have the option to pay with other coin as well like paying with litecoin or stellar coins. They would convert it to fiat anyway unless they would trade it with other coins.

If ever our government decides to implement this as well then I might consider paying it with other coins other than bitcoin since I am accumulating more of it. This would also be a good exposure of bitcoin because others would be convince that bitcoin is not just use in illegal transactions since most of the people who doesn't have any idea about it has the first impression that it is criminal's money.

I can see many people in social media who knows that the investment scheme is a scam but they will still invest in it because they know that it will be paying for a while to attract more investors. They will say that it is a newly opened investment company so join now unless you want to lose your investment by investing later on. They obviously know that it will be gone later on but still hoping to earn from it.

There are times when they got lucky because they were able to get back their investment and it is still paying but for those who invested recently, they will be doomed because they would not be able to get back their investment. This is just pure greediness because some people do not think of others losing money and all they care about is earning from it and continue convincing others to join.

I am not one of the "pro traders" but trading is worth it when you have a specific goal and you stick to it. As what I always read, plan your trade and trade your plan is what the traders are doing and it is effective. In crypto world, it is possible to double or triple your money in just a week or a month but the opposite can also happen if you can't control yourself. It will just depend on what are your goals in crypto. How much profit is your goal like what percentage you are aiming for in a week or a month. Discipline is important and a clear goal. I think a 5% weekly is achievable or 1% profit daily if you have bigger capital but if you have smaller capital then maybe you aim for a higher percentage if you want to reach a specific amount in a particular time.

Yes I remember Jamie Dimon regarding the FUD he spread on August and then later on when the price goes lower, he bought loads of it. Maybe he thought people wouldn't know what he did but he was caught since the name of his company is there buying bitcoin. There are also people who are called "nocoiner" who are always active calling bitcoin scam and the ones who are holding it stupid because they claim that bitcoin is useless. They are the ones who are bitter because they weren't able to buy bitcoin when it was cheaper and instead of buying it when it goes lower, they are happy because they thought they are correct and they are very silent when bitcoin is bullish.