I think that this is a very skewed way of looking at it.

These negative externalities only apply to problem gambling. Normal gambling is welfare maximising in that it gives those who consume the product utility in the form of enjoyment/entertainment, with the price paid being the house edge.

Definitely a flawed argument imo. There is no need to slander and generalise the gambling industry as a whole when the vast majority of players are simply in it for fun.

It feels like the latter outcome is more likely.

Given the extent of the crypto bull market, I don't see any recourse for creditors when it comes to getting paid in full in BTC. The sheer size of their balance sheet would mean that even the biggest exchanges right now probably won't be able to handle such a large liquidation request.

On the flip side, the BTC runup does make paying back everyone in full in terms of fiat a lot more feasible. There will probably be a lot of back and forth still with the legal settlement process, but hopefully they do pull through this time.

I honestly think that both cases are pretty much equally likely.

The market sentiment has shifted to bearish whether you want to admit it or not. Depending on whether the $30k support or the $40k resistance gets breached first, the price action can vary significantly.

We simply don't know how the market is going to pan out in periods of extreme volatility like these. The level of FOMO but also fundamental growth are both in uncharted territory, and anyone who claims that they can predict the future is likely speaking out of their arse.

I think that in the very near future, there will be an institutional influx of funds into these blockchain-based savings products and/or staking platforms.

They simply provide so much more in terms of interest paid on your funds compared to traditional banking alternatives.

However, given the fact that these are all not FDIC insured and with the exception of Crypto.com not audited by a large accounting firm, the risks are quite high. I wouldn't recommend putting away more than half of your assets into these platforms given the risks associated with them. The returns would still not be high enough to justify that imo.

In terms of cloud mining, that's just a no-go altogether. Not worth your time.

For sure, although it is very tough for any feasible competition to gain ground against fiat currencies.

It's essentially a monopoly. The government stipulates that by virtue of law, their own fiat currency is legal tender and hence worth something.

Even if competitors spring up in the short run, such as BTC, the government can simply pull the switch on the regulation end and start their draconian campaign against it.

But over the long run, it is survival of the fittest as you say. The masses will speak and act us eventually against the rampantly depreciating fiat and moved to decentralised currencies as it has happened time and time again throughout history, imho.

I do think so. There are people who seem to think that 6 digits is still possible in this current bull run, but I personally think that is unlikely to happen.

6 digits is almost guaranteed in the long run, especially after the next halving. I think that the long term fundamentals have not changed, if  not improved.

However, this current bull market has clearly ran out of steam and the weak hands need to be flushed out before further gains can be made. The rate of growth of the crypto market was simply unsustainable. Musk's voice has also died down quite a bit.

What makes you think that if BTC dips below a certain level, it will be done for forever?

That makes absolutely no sense to me. A lot of people said the same thing about BTC earlier - when it dipped below 5k during March 2020, there were a bunch of naysayers who touted the idea that BTC is not a store of value, is never going to return back to $20k, is never going to see widespread institutional adoption, etc. etc.

Yet, look what happened? Growth has been exponential and adoption has been insane. I think that it is entirely possible BTC will dip below $30k, or even $20k - but that has no bearing on its fundamentals whatsoever.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket though.

I do think that BTC is likely undervalued from a fundamental perspective right now. However, with the current level of fear in the marketplace, it could be entirely possibly that we see a significant amount of panic selling in the weeks/months that ensue.

This is a good point to start DCA'ing from if you are trying to get into crypto. Put around 2% of your total purchase amount each week into BTC without fail for a year, and you should reap handsome profits come the next halving in 2024.

Precisely.

The institutional backing for crypto is still there, stronger than ever.

Fundamentally, nothing has changed. The current round of dumps is fueled by nothing other than people's irrationality and likely a long squeeze that resulted from a highly leveraged market at the peak.

It's almost comical how Musk is able to sway the masses like this. It makes no sense for his stance on BTC to change from day to day - it is likely just him trying to enter the market for cheaper after a round of FUD.

I remember this site from my CSGO days. Good on you for accepting crypto.

However, I only received 500 coins which corresponds to $0.33 instead of the 7500 coins promised when I entered the code. @OP do you know what is going on with this?

There is also a 10,000 coin wagering requirement attached to this bonus if anyone was interested in that. It would certainly be a lot more achievable with 7,500 coins to start off with.

Relatives are probably the worst of the bunch to get investment advice from.

I suggest that you stray away. Unless you have a good reason to invest in BTC and believe in the technology for the long run for yourself, then you're simply going to panic dump as soon as your relative does the same.

Don't get me wrong, it's not just your relatives. When anyone close to you starts talking about how great an investment is going to be when they have had no previous experience, then they are likely succumbing to the FOMO, have no good reason to be in the market in the first place, and will be at the front of the queue to sell low when the markets go down.

There are simply way too many instances in which people have been ripped off from welcome bonuses for anyone to not be careful.

Casinos are notorious for being dishonest when it comes to ridiculous welcome bonuses, and they are generally going to enforce the rules as strictly as they possibly can in order to deny any actual winners from their winnings.

As a gambler, you need to defend your rights in this case. I honestly suggest that people just avoid welcome bonuses in the first place, since they are so tricky and not worth it most of the time (and induces you to take on more -EV over time). But if you do, then be prepared to argue with the site admin for your bonus if you do fulfill the wagering requirement and end up with a positive balance.

Completely FUD in my view.

We are definitely in a crypto bear market overall, but that doesn't justify the undue enthusiasm that these FUDsters seem to hold.

With the amount of institutional interest and stake in BTC which is unlikely to waver as much as retail investors, it is incredibly hard to see an outcome where the market simply flash crashes by 80% of its value overnight.

Remember that these institutions like Microstrategy aren't just in this for the short term speculation like most retail investors - their investment time horizon is much longer and will prop up BTC prices substantially in market downturns due to their liquid cash reserves that can be readily deployed to buy cheap coins.

To be completely honest, this is a very skewed depiction of growth.

BTC was spawned some 2-3 decades after Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Without adjusting for inflation and the deterioration in purchasing power of the fiat currency, these comparisons are all useless and overstates bitcoin's growth.

And don't get me wrong - growth has certainly been exponential, it's just not to the extent that this infographic boasts imo. But in the future, I do think that as BTC becomes the global reserve currency, we'll see even inflation adjusted growth records being broken by BTC.

Absolutely zero weighting.

Sure, you could look at the forecasts and not lose anything - but definitely do NOT pay for a subscription or make your transactions off of the information you get off this site.

Their models are completely obscured. Heck, it could be a random number generator for all we know. If there were to be any reproducible means of predicting BTC price then they would certainly not share it with you. Bitcoin price is simply a function of wayyy too many variables for it to be predicted deterministically.

They've finally hopped onto the train.

I always felt like that Paypal was only integrating cryptos for the sake of attracting speculators, as opposed to actually adopting the underlying technology.

Whilst I still think that is the case, at least they are integrating the actual bitcoin network onto their system as opposed to just hosting non-leveraged derivatives products and tricking people into thinking that they actually own physical coins.

I wouldn't be surprised if they soon start to allow off-chain transfers on coinbase, although you'd be a madman to store anything long term on there.

100%.

Stablecoins are sort of stuck in no mans land in my opinion. As a form of fiat currency, it doesn't offer any interest, nor does it provide the deposit guarantees that regular savings accounts do.

As a form of crypto, it's completely decentralised and won't really be congruent with the whole DeFi movement. It's clear that right now, stablecoins are allowing a loophole that the government will crack down on increasingly in the future, and animosity from within the crypto community will only continue to grow as well.

Exactly. It's completely unproductive - as long as there is demand for gambling products, the government shouldn't be anti-industry. Rather, it should embrace it and healthily regulate (not through draconian means).

You'll simply get a bunch of unregulated entities springing up that will likely have ridiculously high house edges/rigged games.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather have licensed, regulated casinos that are more transparent compared underground gambling dens that are more likely to be addiction inducing and likely have much more immoral connotations associated with them.

Seems like a great initiative.

However, it's a bit hard to seem unbiased when you have affiliate links scattered across the site.

I understand that the site has to make money, but I think that you should have both affiliate and non-affiliate versions of the link and let the audience choose for themselves. That should inspire a lot more trust in the review process imho.

Also, having actual video reviews where you play would boost the reputation a lot more too - so consider that also.

I do think that BTC dominance will still continue to slip for the foreseeable future.

The fact of the matter is that currently, the crypto market is very fatigued from the year-long rally. BTC has had a long run up and altcoins generally outperform BTC when the market adjusts (especially large caps such as XMR, ETH, etc.).

Also, you have to take into consideration that stablecoins are included in the pool of alts, which would inflate the actual altcoin dominance and depress BTC dominance in times of a bear market.