I would call this a sideways trend. The 13k - 17k channel has been tested a few times in the last few weeks and the price is hovering around there. I don't see the price going any lower and it ay be a clear sign of some upcoming bullish movement in the near future. We'll just have to wait and see. Last week BTC was heading into the 17k range but the South Korea FUD forced it down a little. I'm thinking without that barrier it might have started moving up again.

This is also apparently when Wall Street hands out bonuses. Expect to see some fresh money entering the game later this week.

Last week when it started testing 17k again things were promising, but then the South Korea FUD started spreading and the value dipped again. It's not the last time we're going to see it test 17k though. It'll climb its way back up there in the next week or two, just be patient and HODL.

Personally for me it's a great investment strategy for some extra income. I have a pretty good job for someone my age that allows me to live a relatively normal life where I have enough to live off and still put some of it into savings and a 401k account. If I wanted to make a big purchase though like a house or car I'd have to dig in deep for that, and with a Bitcoin investment it's a good way to have that extra pot of value that I can use for such an occasion. I'm expecting big things from BTC this year 

I wonder why you spend so much time talking on a Bitcoin forum if you hate cryptocurrency so much. Don't you have anything better to do with your time bro? 

That's true they might be plunging, to be honest I haven't looked at the price in the last couple of days and have just enjoyed my weekend without troubles 

I've seen people mention that you should always diversify your altcoin portfolio with at least 50% of your money in BTC, because during a dump your value won't go down as much. I would much rather stay out of altcoins altogether unless there was one I really liked and believed in, but most of the ones that were pumping in the last couple of weeks had no reason behind their pump and were only making whales richer.

I wouldn't refer to them as "painful dips." You have your BTC and if you don't sell it then you don't realize a loss. Just hold on to it until it's a gain. I don't think dips are painful, rather they're an opportunity for you to buy cheap coins so you have more of a gain when the price goes back up. The price won't stay at this level forever, it will go up eventually.

People joining the hype train of shitcoins so they could make easy/quick profits. Altcoins are pumping hard still. Some people don't understand that if you want a good investment you have to find a good product, and BTC has always been and will continue to be a good product. Once the hype starts wearing down for those pump coins they're gonna start shuffling money back into BTC or some of the other bigger coins. The market will be back sooner or later.

It's quite simple, if the price is lower than your expectations, then you either buy some more, or you hold what you already have. If the price is higher than what you expect, then it's time to consider selling, unless you want to continue holding for even bigger and better rewards down the road. A good trader will never sell on the way down. Every market is volatile, but BTC takes it to another level. Just need to wait out the storm, there are brighter days coming.

This is important to keep in mind, because not too long ago in 2017 the price of 1BTC was around 1-2k, and for it to have gone up to almost 20k so quickly was a big change and it happened so fast. We all just need to have some patience and in the next couple of months we should see some big growth.

I don't know what the price will be in 2-3 years, but it's possible it could go up that high. We'll see. One thing we know for sure is that it will grow, so we just need some patience.

Care to elaborate on why this is going to happen?

You posted a random chart without any analysis... I can do that too going in any direction I want. Nothing to see here folks. Just a newbie account spreading FUD.

Not necessarily to dump. They might be trying to get it back on the push towards the next big ATH, and combating FUD news with voicing support for it is a good way to do that.

I agree with you, but it's not so much about showing its value as a payment currency, rather it's about the news source on its own. I feel that because of all the increased attention to the crypto market, media focus on positive or negative aspects of the market do tend to affect it in some (maybe small/insignificant) ways. I think the news that MS is reinstating payments may nudge some legitimacy in BTC's direction in the view of the general public.

I for one had no clue MS even accepted BTC payments in the first place. I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking that.

https://www.coindesk.com/microsoft-resumes-bitcoin-payments-after-halt-over-instability/

If anything, MS's decision to start taking Bitcoin again will end up helping it rise in price. They reinstated BTC payments.

I read that this morning about Microsoft as well. I wasn't even aware they took Bitcoin payments in the first place (and that they stopped for some reason), but hearing the news that they're resuming, especially in the downtrend we're in at the moment, it shows that BTC has big backing behind it.

I'm also seeing news about Kodak's own coin launch and how that boosted its stock to such highs. Lots of smaller altcoins on the market that have blown up are startup companies that wouldn't even get anywhere close to 50k - 100k in funding if they went the normal route, yet they're achieving half a billion dollars in investments overnight just by being in the blockchain market. I don't see how investors like Warren Buffet can say this stuff is going to collapse. But then again, Warren Buffet tends to hate anything he can't understand, so that makes sense why he hates blockchain.

I'm not trying to spread FOMO or anything, but I feel the BTC market is ripe for a boom soon. It's been stagnant for a while and now is the right time for people to invest into it, not sell. Here's an article I saw from Business Insider:

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-explosion-wall-street-spends-bonuses-2018-1

Basically Wall Street firms are in the season where bonuses are being paid out to traders. What that means is that by next week or the one after, you're gonna have a bunch of young guys with fat bonus checks, and BTC will be an enticing investment for them to try to grow their bonus even more. Definitely do NOT sell your BTC. I'm even in the red at the moment because I bought in a little higher than I should have in December, but I know there are green days ahead.

Well I don't think we can safely predict anything a few years out yet, but I think that sounds reasonable considering how far it's already grown. I find it fascinating to see old threads on this forum from even last year or a couple of years ago where people are trying to speculate the 2017 or 2018 price and they are WAY off the mark. Most of them were predicting somewhere around 5k by 2018, and here we are at around 3 times higher the price. If the past is any indication, our speculation now is probably way off as well. I'm not expecting anything big in the way 2017 went, but if the price doubles this year (or even in a few weeks or couple of months)? That sounds completely reasonable to me.

20k was a psychological barrier that many people sold at, and that downturn caused a bit of panic, and then a lot of panic. Just a big domino effect. Once we get past 20k again that barrier will be gone until maybe 25k or 30k is achieved.

First they invite NK to the Olympics, and now they do this? SK, get your sh*t together!