I thought it was obvious to everyone, but apparently, it's not. It has all to do with the looming Segwit activation that by the next difficulty adjustment (around ten days away from now) will become reality. But honestly, I still consider current levels to be peanuts. I will start taking the price a bit more serious, at the time we finally demolish the $10,000 level - that's right, five massive figures! If we happen to reach $5000 this year, from there it will "only" require the market to increase with 100% in order to reach five figure levels. I remember the thread that was pointing at how many coins one person would need in order to become a millionaire - well, the number of coins needed to reach millionare status are decreasing in a rapid phase. Even insignificant coin numbers back in 2015, are worth a decent bit of money now.

Turns out to be a great shot. I placed some sell orders between $3950-$4050 and they all got filled at the time I woke up. It will be interesting to see in what direction the market is heading to. I strongly believe that if the momentum remains in tact, we can keep increasing till the moment the activation of Segwit is completed. For that reason, my target for this year is an all time high of $5000, where after that we'll be heading down again. No matter how bullish people are, the market needs to take a few steps back in order to prepare for another rush. It's all part of the market.

$250K not being anything significant to HBO doesn't justify them throwing that on the table to feed a bunch of criminals. The hackers by that time can simply change their part of the deal at any time to make HBO pay them more money, and then still, they might likely release the content anyway. Such criminals have no moral standards, and thus should never be incentivized to continue their illicit acts. In other words, companies should not be paying anything in the first place, and not decide to not pay criminals anymore after they haven't kept word.

It's not difficult at all. If you don't overbuy, or don't invest/trade with money that isn't meant to take risks with, then you won't find yourself go nuts at the time you're losing on a trade. It doesn't matter how skilled you are, every trader is swallowing losses on a certain part of their trades. The difference is that these skilled traders make more profitable than losing trades, and that's what most of the people aren't able to accomplish - for them, trading is a pure losing game. These people shouldn't put their nose into something they aren't ready for. If we're talking about longer term trading, then things are a bit different. In case you end up selling too early, or buying too late, then there is not much that one can do other than waiting for the price to rebound or fall down. If you sell at a loss, it will be a very difficult task to recoup these losses with other trades. It will take far too much of your time, and there is no guarantee that your patience will pay off. That's why day trading allows one to take a hit or two out of the numerous trades without much problems - it's collateral damage.

Based on how the price is going up regardless of what people are saying and thinking, this could indeed turn out to happen. Mind sharing why you specifically point at the $4300 level? I don't consider this to be anything special. It's just a slightly over 10% increase to be there from current levels. I think by the time I wake up tomorrow (around 9AM forum time), the price will likely hover above the $4000 level. If not, then +90% chance for it to happen on Monday. But then again, the $4000 level is nothing more than a psychological achievement, because percentage wise, it's literally peanuts in Bitcoin terms.

At this point anything can literally happen. As long as we have the activation of Segwit ahead of us, the chance for a serious correction to kick in is on the lower side. After the activation, I can definitely see the market take a few steps back, and honestly, I think the market is in need of it if we happen to have touched the $5000 level by that time. Seriously, it would mean that in a matter of 9 months, the price has gone up with 400%!! It's unlikely to see the price go up further than that in the remaining months of this year, without a correction. If we however do end up going to see the market increase further, then we may be heading towards a forming bubble.

I don't think we're in a bubble (short term speaking) unless we in the coming months rocket up to everything above the $6000 level. Everything below that is considered to be an overbought market for me. Realistically, a fair price in my eyes with Segwit being activated would be anything between $3000-$4000. It may be a somewhat conservative range, but that's mainly due to the fact that we don't know how things will play out at the time the 2MB hard fork is supposed to kick in.

This is actually great news. It won't allow them to make more victims if they at some point close their doors and run like there is no tomorrow. I seriously don't understand why people still make use of this exchange, after everything that happened. There are a fair number of exchanges that are fully licensed in each and every aspect, so there is really not an excuse for anyone to point at. It's a bit different, but in more or less a similar way, people shouldn't make use of BTC-E anymore if they happen to be operational again in whatever form or shape. Rewarding an exchange for their illicit acts isn't something anyone here should be doing - and that's exactly what has happened with Bitfinex, as they gained back their leading position in the USD market.

This is straight bs. Why on earth would you (doesn't matter if you're an individual, or a multi million business) reward these pathethic beings for their illicit acts? This will further incentivize them to continue with what they are doing, because they know they get what they are looking for - money. Another thing is that when you end up paying, there is nothing that guarantees these hackers to literally remove everything they have afterwards. These people have no moral standards, and thus will have no problems spreading their information, or selling it to different parties. Accept your loss, and instead of rewarding a bunch of criminals, invest that money into proper security of the operating systems.

It doesn't matter who it is, one shouldn't look at the global crypto market cap in order to find out that crypto currencies can't be ignored. Instead, look at their genuine demand, usage, and why exactly crypto in general is so boiling hot. Regular people, investors, at some point institutions as well, they all look to take a sizeable position into crypto. Mainly because of the fact that this industry can offer long term growth - growth that the traditional assets don't seem to be able to offer, or at least, by far not in the same quantities. Regarding ICO's, I am a large supporter of this part of the market being in dire need of proper regulations. If nothing happens, this ICO hype/craze will end up in a scammers feast (more than it is right now).

After everything that happened, Bitfinex isn't an exchange you should be storing any funds on in the first place. Not sure what your portfolio exactly consists of, but see this as a red flag signal to withdraw everything you have ASAP. It may not seem like a positive statement coming from Bitfinex, but if you look at it from a different perspective, they at least can't make any more US related victims if they happen to go nuts at some point (I definitely believe they will, the only question is when).

Not sure if I fit in the category of old hands (bought my first coins between $20-$25 back in early 2013), but I am mainly focusing on trading my coin count up, as I have always been doing - nothing changed in that regard. Bitcoin is the only asset I have in my crypto portfolio, and that's more than enough. What do I need shitcoins for, when I have the Gold on top of the Gold already. I swallowed a large loss due to the BTC-E shutdown, but I am destined to gain everything back with trading in the coming years. For now, that's my only priority.

Do not blame yourself for having sold whatever number of coins below the $500 level, because as you said, you needed that money. Even when you didn't need that money, you possibly might have cashed out some of the profits you made back then. It doesn't really matter at what levels we are moving - people will always cash out profits, spend their coins, etc. The only thing you MUST blame yourself for, is that you lost coins with something so pathetic as gambling. Gambling is a straight losing game, especially long term wise. Some times I see people brag about the profits they made with gambling, but these delusional beings don't tell you how much they have lost before that, and that whatever they win, it can't make up for the heavy losses they suffered in the years before that.

It's not only CNBC that has been bullish on Bitcoin, or to put it, less negative. Main stream media sources, wall street banks, etc, they all seem to have changed the way they look at Bitcoin. It's funny that it took them this long to come to that point, but better late than never I guess. Most people here throughout the years have noticed that if Bitcoin would have made it into the news, it mostly had to do with theft, money laundering, drugs, weapons, etc. I even had the impression that they on purposely didn't cover Bitcoin related news that was positive minded. They had one task, and that was making Bitcoin look as bad as possible in the eyes of the average joes. Other than that, this Bitcoin is worth x times more than an ounce of Gold is just rubbish. It has ZERO value considering that Bitcoin's market cap isn't even enough to account for 0.9% of Gold's market cap.

I definitely hope so. Don't get me wrong, in no circumstances should the tool be blamed for abuse by a bunch of tards, but at least it distracts whatever negativity there is away from Bitcoin. I however think they will continue to go with Bitcoin, because (1) Bitcoin is well known, and (2) it's peanuts to purchase them (in terms of how easy it is). Perhaps when altcoins gain more attention and usage globally, that there could be a shift in the sort of crypto that is being used for these illicit activities, but it will take years (if it's ever going to happen).

Coinbase definitely pushes things forward quickly. I wonder if they ever plan to get themselves listed on one of the better stock exchanges. If they themselves have no plans for it, perhaps the major share holders will try to force things through. Bitcoin and crypto in general stand for growth, and that's exactly something investors are looking for. But still, if they at some point get their listing on whatever stock exchange, the relatively low initial value will likely attract the major tech companies to throw a few billion on table to possibly buy all shares in existence.

Everything related to the existence of the xbtce platform is questionable. When it comes to the differences, and then mainly the reason why people would sign up there, is that they offer various features that the main platform doesn't offer. BTC-E could very easily incorporate all features, but they on purposely created a secondary platform, that at the same time, indeed happens to require verification. I strongly believe that BTC-E created that exchange as a backup plan, in case something (we know what happened) would force their main platform to shut down. Currently, these are the volumes of the xbtce platform; https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/xbtce/ These volumes may however grow in the coming months, as I believe that there are enough BTC-E victims willing to hop over to xbtce.

I have been noticing a positive sentiment change amongst most of the main stream (local and non local) news sources. It wasn't all that long ago where they were reporting about Bitcoin only in cases of idiots demanding ransom in Bitcoins, people using Bitcoin to buy drugs from deep web markets, people buying weapons with Bitcoin, large scale money laundering, etc. I find it already a top achievement that they are letting this go and start looking at Bitcoin from a different, mainly less negative, perspective. Regarding altcoins, I don't see this as something that concerns me - people have the freedom to invest into whatever they want. In some cases people are genuinely interested in the features certain altcoins offer, or better said, what inconveniences they solve that Bitcoin doesn't solve, and not necessarily in the speculative aspect. But as you also pointed out, these projects account for an extremely low percentage of the altcoin market, the rest is pure trash.

It's not that unlikely to see the price hit the $4000 level just before, or just after the activation of Segwit. In most cases, the prices increases in advance of the happening, so it basically means that the chances are on the higher side that we'll break through that level before the next difficulty adjustment (i.e within two weeks). But then again, I don't see it last very long as I expect a correction to kick in not long after that. People shouldn't think that with the activation of Segwit we miraculously have solved everything scaling related. There is still the 2MB hard fork in November that can push the market back significantly.

Things definitely look a lot brighter, but as always - actions speak louder than words. Till that time, it wouldn't hurt to remain conservative regarding a good end in this whole drama situation. I however don't like the fact that in order to gain the funds back, one needs to 'fully' verify himself. In normal circumstances it wouldn't be all that bad, but the thing is that this information might end up in the hands of a bunch of criminals, and the authorities at the same time. In that regard, I have to figure out something. I am definitely not going to verify there with my own information, so I think I will pay someone else to use his ID details to complete the verification. That being said, it's indeed pathetic how certain idiots here make fun out of the losses of innocent people. But after all, this is bitcointalk - things like that can be expected since weak minded people, trolls, fud spreaders, shills, etc, account for the majority of this forum.