I think I've made too many mistakes in this crypto-universe. Perhaps the most painful of all my mistakes was having been invited to invest in bitcoin about six years ago, when cryptocurrencies were not yet well known and their price was very cheap. But unfortunately I did not have enough vision to think it would be profitable, so I simply turned my back on bitcoin. Another of my mistakes was having bought ethers below $5.00, to sell them at $7.00, thinking it was a good profit margin.

I believe that bitcoin will eventually be used as a way to transfer greater power to individuals rather than to nations or corporations, so the simple fact that individuals enjoy a freer and fairer economy can contribute in a way remarkable to improve the quality of life of a country, that is, the benefits for the country are in a rather indirect way.

To be honest I am not too enthusiastic about the need to accumulate too many cryptos to ensure high profitability in the long-term market. I am convinced that when this market consolidates only very few cryptocurrencies will be required to satisfy the financial and economic needs of society, for which I am only buying some altcoins to speculate, and as a long-term investment I am only holding bitcoin and ethereum, despite the bad expectations about their next future.

So far the bitcoin market does not seem to give signs of life, and to be honest, I do not think that in the rest of the year we can see an impetuous awakening in the market. In fact, given how erratic bitcoin has behaved throughout this year, it seems to be quite beneficial to close the year above $5.000, when in the worst moments many predicted that bitcoin could fall to even levels below $3K. The worst thing is that the market seems so stagnant that there seems to be no better prospects for the year 2019.

I think sooner or later the price of bitcoin will tend to behave in a more stable way, perhaps in the same way as fiat currencies behave, because as its popularity and acceptance grows, more difficult will be that a few actors have enough strength to manipulate its price as easily as it has been so far. However, I believe that there is still a long time to see a market consolidation and we will undoubtedly continue to observe periods of high volatility, although less frequently.

I was fortunate to sell a portion of my bitcoins in December of last year, but unfortunately I did not do it in the amount I would have wanted because obviously most of us involved in this market were totally seized by the enthusiasm and we assumed that the price of bitcoin would grow even more. I clearly remember that many anticipated that the $50K or $100K mark would possibly fall in the following months, throughout 2018, so I think it is too late to repent and we have no choice but to shake the dust and move on.

I am not so sure this is the right time to start an initiative like this, because everything seems to indicate that the market is dying slowly and there are few prospects in the medium term for a certain recovery. In reality many projects only aspire to survive and bounty managers are not responsible for this situation, so perhaps it is time to look for new alternatives to generate free money.

I have not seen clear signs of recovery in the market, but it seems to have stagnated in a consistent way despite the fact that the atmosphere around the crypto market seems to be going through good times, although it is clear that many have come to the conclusion that bitcoin will not be the financial solution that many assumed it would become, so even in the best of cases the price of bitcoin will remain fairly stable for a long time, and only a true speculative miracle could bring it back to prices over $10k.

Although the growth seems incipient, I also believe that we are close to a new bullish rally in the price of bitcoin, perhaps not of the magnitude of the one experienced last year, but with enough force to approach us in a considerable way to the $10,000 line, which would undoubtedly mean a breakthrough after having suffered a long year of broken illusions and accumulated disappointments.

I also decided to take a break about it, because after two years of trading I discovered that my whole life was revolving around trading, which was taking me away from my social life and adequate rest. Eventually I plan to return to the activity, but in the meantime I need to refresh my mind and rest properly, otherwise I believe that even my mental health would be at risk.

Despite the many doubts that prevail about the future of ethereum at this time, I am still convinced that ethereum is one of the most solid and reliable platforms in the crypto universe, however I think the best option of all is bitcoin, and in a distant second place is ethereum. Although I am currently prioritizing the investment in bitcoins more than in any other cryptocurrency, of course investing some capital in ethereum is essential for those who like diversification as a valid way to spread risks in this volatile market.

Why not? In these moments it is evident the disenchantment that exists between the big investors before the disillusionment that has meant for many speculators the great fall of the cryptocurrency market after the euphoria of 2018. The discouragement is such that in my opinion a bigger fall seems imminent, as this market has proven to be especially sensitive to psychology and rumors.

On the other hand, if we remove the effect of the high volatility of 2017 and we refer to the behavior of the market in the previous years, there seems to be a fairly solid support around $3,000.

The bounty programs have been quite positive to make this new market accessible to those who have little investment possibilities, however I believe that easy money times are about to run out and it is likely that there will be more and more restrictions to be able to participate in bounties, so that although these programs persist for a long time, not everyone will be able to benefit from them.

In fact this is a situation that is alerting many regulatory authorities due to the large number of scams that are occurring due to this disruptive business model, in addition to the permanent suspicions of money laundering that continually emerge against everything that has relationship with cryptocurrencies. But while the appropriate regulatory framework arises, we should all be very cautious when making an investment decision of this nature.

In fact, regardless of the fact that in this year the outlook of the crypto market has remained quite bearish, it has become clear that this market and the technology underlying the cryptocurrencies seem to be walking different paths, since at this moment it seems that the big speculators seem to be losing interest in risking their money in this volatile market, but the real economy seems to be discovering the great possibilities of the blockchain and more doors seem to be opening to the cryptocurrencies, which allows to configure a bright future for them, although the market seems say the opposite.

I am not sure that truly intelligent people are basing their investment decisions on such a limited and uncertain criterion, since there are enough criteria to be taken into account before opting for a cryptocurrency. It is obvious that OP surely has a large amount of money invested in Cardano and is interested in moving the market through this type of promotional campaigns, however I think that most of us who participate on this forum have sufficient knowledge of the market to rush to invest moved by these actions.

Although most of the altcoins present valid alternatives to solve the deficiencies of bitcoin or seek to offer adequate solutions for a specific niche of users, unfortunately the market has ignored the intrinsic value of each altcoin and seems to have put them all in the same bag, punishing them too much in times of high volatility in the behavior of bitcoin, which is no more than a clear signal that those who are investing in altcoins do so for purely speculative purposes, without any commitment for individual projects, so undoubtedly it is bad for the altcoins that the price of bitcoin remains bearish.

Indeed, the simple fact that the bloodbath has ceased and has left a fairly stable market is already good news, as many anticipated the possibility that the price of bitcoin would be retracted at prices even close to $3,000 for late of this year. But we must begin to consider 2017 as an atypical year that will hardly repeat itself, so we must begin to prepare our minds to face the possibility that bitcoin behaves in a fairly stable and regular way from this year.

At least from my personal perception, I get the impression that the domain of bitcoin in the market and in the psychology of investors seems to be growing more and more, and this is leading to the performance of most of the cryptos clearly draw a direct correlation with the price of bitcoin, so that the entire current market seems to depend solely and exclusively on the performance of bitcoin, which is a clear sign that investors are not worried about the underlying technology of each altcoin, but that they are only acquiring them to speculate.

I do not believe in the existence of "newbie traders". There may be aspiring traders, but to deserve the title of "trader" it is not enough to invest some money and operate a trading platform with the hope that a stroke of luck will make us millionaires. That usually does not happen in real life, and perhaps the biggest mistake a newbie can make is to invest their capital without having a real knowledge of what this business means.