Jeez... it's actually accelerating.

Can't stop watching and Stamp is leading Finex by a decent margin.

This is the most Gentleman it's been since late '17.

I think Marcus trumped all claims earlier on...   And he's not known for his humility, so you needn't worry, you probably have a decent shot at the humility prize, for what it's worth

Often the semi-final surpasses the final, LFC.  I think it's Liverpool's - but I don't think it can be half the match either of the semi finals were...

Hey Mic - thanks for indulging me.

By the way, I have a certain poster I think you might like. PM me a safe adress and I will send it to you. For services rendered to the WO, of course.

The Dude abides. And signs, on occasion....  

Hey Mic, you're right, but I hope you won't mind if I say I don't think I was far off, either....

A snip from early Jan:


Please forgive my easily bruised ego.

I am not surprised - total miracle.  I loved what Klopp said before the game: 'Shock Barcelona, or fail beautifully'

Kind of - fuck it, you have nothing to lose, but do something to show them who you are.   

There are probably only three teams I can think of who ever possessed the spirit to do something like that.

And the best two of them were Liverpool.

Oh NO!

Did you really give up your tickets LFC?!!!

Best Liverpool game since that night in Istanbul...   Just incredible.  Possibly a better comeback even that the legendary final. And against Barca.

Well - now the final.  No one will bet against you now.

I tend to under-estimate.  It often works for me as I am rarely disappointed.  Although I have under-estimated bear markets too, to my great regret. 

Anyway, to answer your question:
Firstly - I reckon the next ATH in BTC will be a little earlier (autumn '21), but Monero's habit of lagging will mean spring 2022 may well see its peak, so I will take a guess.

From the end of the bear market to top of the next bullrun in BTC should be a minimum of 1600% which means a 50K USD - or higher - new ATH.

Let's say 50K - 100K.   Monero, post-peak has been as much as 3.5% of BTC, but more often around 2.5% at its peak during BTC bull runs.

So - May 2022 just after BTC ATH, let's pick a figure of 75K for BTC
XMR/BTC at 0.025 gives a figure of:  $1875

Note: I may not be here to see if I am right.  I could be fortifying my private island by then, and avoiding BTCT for opsec reasons.

Haven't popped in for a while but I will throw my hat in the ring, too - albeit a little late for the mad hatters tea party.

While Monero has held up in USD reasonably well - and stayed above the $60 mark having briefly dipped to sub-$40 six months ago, it may seem to have languished against BTC since things picked up. So far...

However, looking back, XMR always lagged behind BTC when things turned upwards.  See XMR/BTC lows in early '17, and of course massive highs in both BTC and USD in Spring 2018 sometime after BTC's last bull run had peaked.

So, while all alts are definitely out of season, Monero is about where it should be, with BTC's market dominance at such high levels.  Monero dropped to its recent USD ATL in mid-December within a couple of days of BTC reaching its absolute low to end the last bear market.  For me the low point is around now for XMR/BTC.

Why?  Well, while BTC is dominant and obviously looking up at last, anyone increasing their investment in crypto is tending to buy BTC - rather than speculating in a sluggish alt-market right now.

I expect - judging by historic patterns and some technicals - XMR/BTC will see a decent bounce against by summer between mid-July and Early Sept.  

I'm a long-term holder of XMR and, but for my boating accident, I'd be a substantial one.  XMR is not a 'here-today-gone-tomorrow' coin, it's an honest POW, no-premine coin with decent use cases as money, and is the dominant privacy coin.  Never out of the CMC top-20 since Monero debuted in it - despite the token shit that dominates the index - it has a great community, active development and an admired ethos.  

If you're speculating - then a medium term BTC to XMR and back if well-timed could increase your stash of BTC nicely, but for me it's always been something I advise everyone (even my family) to keep as a portion of a balanced portfolio.

So, enjoy the bargain season for XMR, I cannot see it lasting for long.

“Backpage also furthered its money laundering efforts through the use of bitcoin processing companies. Over time, Backpage utilized companies such as Coinbase, GoCoin, Paxful, Kraken, and Crypto Capital to receive payments from customers and/or route money through the accounts of related companies.”

So Backpage 'laundered' it's dirty money (from prostitution, kiddie fiddling and all) though Coinbase etc. too?

'Laundered' meaning they used Bitcoin and sold it through places that allow you to sell Bitcoin.  Sell it for dollars which presumably went to banks. Backpage get busted, OK, I get it - but are they going after Coinbase and the banks too?

Or just a company that also used Crypto Capital.

I am feeling increasingly sympathetic towards Finex. They weren't even as criminal as a 'normal' bank, they were just trying to serve their customers - and ironically Tether really was backed by real dollars.

Ho Chi Minh centre - near Notre Dame or War Remnants Museum?

I support the proposal that MicG should be a merit source.  In my humble opinion, he would be a worthy candidate.

He sort of ties the thread together.

And you are succeeding.  Look back and see how far you have come. You think of what will work at the avatar level, which colours will contrast best.  It's a joy to watch.  Keep it up.

I doubt anyone got my Nietzsche reference...  But they get the hats

For sure.  For Haiku makes us strong...

Gotta say, your hats are becoming unsurpassable works of art, homer. You have talent and an eye for design. Respect.  From this design junkie.

At times like these a philosophical reflection...

Nietzsche would have loved Bitcoin:

Proof of concept.

I used to do a bit there, but never felt comfortable.  

That said, I just logged in and it turns out I have 0.08 BTC hanging around I'd forgotten about.  

But it will require 2FA set up (for five days prior) and ip Address locking in place for 5 days... And a possible eternal delay because their cold wallet is empty before five days are out.

Hmm... I don't think their liquidity will be doing well - looking at the price increase, people are dumping Tether to buy BTC and presumably trying to get out.

Also - not all clients will be paying 0.2% - so income may be lower and expenses are not zero, either.  Filling a hole of many hundreds of millions cannot be done without years of all that income going into replace 'lost' capital.

As GentlemanD said, the irony is Tether WAS backed up until they lost this large chunk of funds.  However, getting any new banking partner now will be nigh-on impossible.

Finex are in deep shit and probably in a total spin.  Maybe a death spiral.  Since they are (basically) profitable, I would think their best bet might be to try to find someone to buy 'em who does have banking sorted out and can float capital in to save the day. But who they gonna call..? 

Only a couple of candidates exist - and they might think the brand is too toxic.  Even at a sale price of $1, which is the likely price for Finex with a hole in the hundreds of millions of USD and a legal case on their back.

A bank could do it, but even if it makes financial sense, I can't see them risking running a crypto exchange.  Coinbase? Anyone else...?  With fast action needed and no time to do proper due diligence?  Doubt it.

First, Finex need to keep their customers to survive for long enough to find a solution.   

The chances of doing this with the run for the door already well underway is slim and all the Tethers coming back for redemption won't help.  But it's their only hope.

Yep - they popped a cool billion dollars (some theirs but mostly client's money) with a dodgy offshore 'payment processor' to do payouts to customers within the banking system - as Finex had no practical access to it.  Around 800 million has now either been lost or simply stolen.

The pleading emails from 'Merlin' at Finex asking, nay pleading nicely to his mate 'Oz' at purported payment processer 'Crypto Capital' to at least pop a $100 million over as things were getting desperate are instructive.

Seems CC was spinning the line that money had been seized by Polish / Portuguese 'authorities'....

The upshot is that Finex then raided Tether funds to fill the hole and the action from US-based authorities is based upon things linking into accounts and customers in New York.

Finex appears to be insolvent. As is Tether.

EDIT: posted before I caught up, probably a little late.   
One further thought - this actually may not crash Bitcoin at all - remember the Silk Road bust dip..?  Surely getting out of Tether into BTC makes more sense than selling BTC?

It was actually 'Wir fahren, farhen, farhen auf der autobahn' (farhen = drive)

But the German autobahn is indeed a joy to drive.