Bull trap or not, it was a fantastic opportunity to cash out coins bought well below the $400 levels. I don't think the price will go much lower than $700 at worst, but I am ready to do some buying back if it does happen to become reality. Other than that, it was a well expected dump since a serious correction was imminent for quite some time. It only took longer than expected, with as result that smart people were given the opportunity to cash out at even higher levels.

You can't stop the market. It's people's choice to buy up the price all the way to +$1100 where no one is being forced to do so. If you buy at such prices, then you must realize what risks you're exposing yourself to. And exactly that is something they don't realize/understand, or they simply don't care due to their yolo mentality. I personally don't rule out to test the $800 level again within let's say a month or so. Market was heavily overbought to a point where people with common sense would just wait for the market to come down again before buying themselves some coins. But then again, as long as people don't sell their coins, they don't lose anything.

I assume you meant to say that banks are showing their interest in the blockchain as technology, and not Bitcoin as coin, right? If so, then yes. Banks, governments, businesses, etc, see the added value of having a similar system as the blockchain technology to power their entire way of doing business and handling things. But the main thing here is that they are just looking to create their own private version of the blockchain. It will be made in the way that they remain in full control over every aspect, as they don't want you to enjoy any level of freedom.

Correction was imminent for quite a while, so in that regard, it's not coming as a surprise for me. I welcome this drop as it made me a good profit in such a short time. I personally hope that this volatility will remain active for the coming days. The more volatility, the better. For China it's important to maintain the 7000CNY barrier in the coming days. As long as that happens, then I am fairly confident that the price will go up again after a short break. The market needs this time out. Nothing goes only up in value without experiencing these level of corrections.

You have to be more clear... Are you talking about people panic selling due to the correction that we have seen today, or people cashout out profits at current levels. If the latter, then there is nothing wrong with cashing out a small portion of your coins if you have made a more than decent profit. If you talk about the first option, then yes, depending on what levels they bought their coins at, it's not going well for them right now. But that gives traders a very nice opportunity to buy back at lower levels. Where one person is screwing up, another person comes up celebrating the victory.

Chinese exchanges are the absolute leaders when it comes to their trading volumes. However, it's not only Chinese people making use of BTC/CNY trading. There are plenty of very wealthy individuals operating from China, but where they actually reside in a different country. Chinese exchanges lends themselves perfectly for high speed trading, which attracts people with very deep pockets from all around the world. Especially when exchanges like BTCC allow people to trade without any fees. It allows large players to benefit from even the slightest price changes, where it results in massive profits.

Investment wise Bitcoin is always the better option, but that doesn't mean you can't gain anything from Gold in a matter of a year or two. It all depends on the moment you enter and leave the market. If you make use of the volatility that even Gold is having, then I am fairly sure that you can gain a decent profit of 15-25% per year. For traditional investors 15-25% per year is a fantastic return. Other than Bitcoin, various stocks and FX, where do you get such returns? If you look at how conservative a lot people invest, then they mostly don't top the 5% of profit per year. Tell me, who is crazy here?

I don't consider the current transaction fees to be cheap at all. As pools more and more depend on income through fees, it will only become worse. If the price goes up accordingly, then it can compensate the lower income through mining, but if the price doesn't go up, then the fees will be upped in order to not fall behind with their earnings. Right now 0.0001BTC ~$0.10 isn't enough to get pools excited. At least 0.0002BTC should be included to make pools pick up your transaction assuming the byte size of your transaction isn't too much above the average transactions size. If the latter is the case, then you need to up the fee to 0.0003-0.0005BTC...

Bitcoin is indeed a good option, but I doubt that many people are actually buying themselves into Bitcoin. Poor people have other things to worry about than Bitcoin. Their first priority is to survive, and not to look at what Bitcoin can do for them. But if you're talking about the higher positioned people in terms of their financial situation, then these will be the people that look for alternatives as Bitcoin that they can use as a hedge and escape. But I think they will prefer Gold rather than Bitcoin at this point. Especially when they don't know what Bitcoin really is.

I doubt the fees of Chinese exchanges have much to do with the gap. China is where the far majority of the demand comes from, so in that regard, it does make sense that Chinese exchanges are a decent amount ahead of other exchanges. However, in some cases this gap is indeed on the larger side, but that's mainly due to the fact that western exchanges have to do some catching up.

Don't waste time waiting and cash out a certain portion of your coins, these prices won't be sustainable for too long. It's a fantastic opportunity. I have cashed out a certain portion as well. I won't be risking having missed a great chance to secure profits at these levels. Ignore the feeling of greed if it makes you wait. If you cash out like 10-20% and save the other part of your coins, then you can still benefit if the price happens to increase further. That's how you should do it. If the price goes down sharp, then you can use the money from the coins you sold to buy back at lower prices. It's a win win situation.

Security of your funds? Having another entity being in control over your coins isn't what I consider to be secure. Bitcoin bank will just be a third party/unofficial service just having the word bank in its name. That's all. I can't think of anyone actually wanting or needing a service to hold their coins while people themselves can do it already. Or.... Perhaps they think they will gain interest over their coins if they store their coins there. That's also a possibility. The majority of the people here mostly make decisions based on a financial gain.

It's mainly the government that should receive the blame as they force businesses to comply with their rules. Governments always hide themselves behind the excuse of that they are doing this to chase down money streams that are being used to finance terrorism, etc, but in reality it's just that they want to find out who owns what amount. With Bitcoin the government don't know anything about which person holds what amount. So they just have to come up with an easy solution, and that is to try slow down Bitcoin's growth/prevent people from making use of Bitcoin by running an anti Bitcoin campaign. They use the mainstream media as a proxy for doing so.

That's why I find it very weird that people here in the last years have been praising Bitcoin for the fact that they are finally the boss over their money. But when a thread pops up asking whether or not it's a good idea to have a "Bitcoin bank" or a regular bank accepting Bitcoin, that people directly like the idea and will make use of it. That's basically them lying to themselves as this goes against all what Bitcoin is standing for. How can you shift from one point of view where you want to remain in full control, to the side where you give up this precious control to an entity that doesn't want you to have any freedom at all. Weird people...

I don't know what your definition of trading is, but regardless of the popularity and the price, trading has never been something predictable. If that was the case, then a few people here would be multi millionaires easily. I think you're talking about buy low and sell high. In that regard, if you have at least some sort of market understanding, then it can be fairly easy to assume that due to the increased demand, the price will go up to levels much higher than was the case months ago. In that regard, it can be seen as easy, but the price could very well have moved into the opposite direction as Bitcoin is too unpredictable from nature. Never take things for granted when it comes to Bitcoin. One day everything looks nice where the sentiment is going through the roof, where the other day things can change in a blink of an eye.

Governments don't have to directly mention Bitcoin as being something that can be taxed. It's very simply, if you have $100,000 sitting in Bitcoin, then it adds up to your wealth, and over you wealth you have to pay tax. If you use these coins to trade with, and you make whatever percentage of profit, then you have to pay tax over these profits as well. And the $100,000 figure I mentioned was just an example as it can be any amount from a decent level. Other than that, governments will not adopt Bitcoin. That's something you should forget about.

It's the demand in China that's far stronger than the demand here in the western world. That's why they are ahead of all other exchanges with their pricing. Western exchanges are just operating behind China and are in some cases hesitant to come close to their ticker price. Another reason is the fact that large players keep the price at such levels on purpose, to make it far more profitable to do arbitrage trading between western and Chinese exchanges. Right now the difference is like $40 per coin. Imagine how that will be when you do that with thousands of coins every month. Big money.

Current price is good to secure profits or to just keep holding your coins. I wouldn't want to find myself buying at current levels as result of having missed the opportunity to buy at prices far below the current levels months ago. Investing right now is like gambling since the price has been going through an unpredictable (more than ever was the case) time frame. Especially when you consider that we haven't seen a correction yet. Also, don't forget that the higher we go up right now, the lower the further profits will be. It means even greater risks for people buying at current levels.

Bitcoin has always been more rewarding than stocks, so in that regard, it's nothing new. The difference here is that people trading stocks are okay/happy with like 10-20% profits per year, where here in the Bitcoin world people look at 20% profits like it's nothing. That's why you see a shift in the portfolios from traditional investors. Bitcoin is being seen as a very interesting option that potentially (depends on at what price levels they entered the market) outperforms their entire portfolio without any problems.

A correction has been imminent since the price broke through the $900 level, and look where we stand right now. Nothing goes only up in value without corrections in between. Other than that, I wouldn't feel comfortable to buy at current prices either. That's why I have done my buying well below $400 when basically everyone had plenty of time to do so. If people decide to buy at current prices where their intention is to make some short term profits, then it's a pure gamble. If you accept the risk, then go for it, but it's not a wise thing to do so.