the market cap of bitcoin is indeed very low if you consider the future potential of this piece of technology. that's why it's a great long term (+5 years) investment. i keep saying this to everyone ; buy today and keep holding for years. with enough patience you'll see the coins that you bought increase in value significantly.

if you can make great profits which allow you to make more than when you would simply hold your coins, then it's a great thing. however, only a very few percentage of the traders can do this. holding isn't difficult and everyone can do it if they have enough patience. even the worst noobs can do it. that's why it's an attractive way of making money.

it's more likely that the price goes down after the block halving as people will cash out the coins that they bought at todays prices or even below $400. you just need to make sure you sell before others do. best selling time will be just before the block halving. if you wait till after the block halving you may risk losing some of your profits as the price will be heading down.

it depends. if you keep holding your coins eventhough the price has dropped significantly, then you don't lose anything. but if you sell, then yes, you'll end up making a loss. stocks are exactly the same in that aspect.

yep, right now it's the block halving that people eat and dream about here in this forum. as always it's the greed that takes over. people only care about the block halving price increase and that's it. there is nothing else to talk about for them.

people will only get disappointed when their predictions are way too high as the majority of the dreamers here do.

wow! you're really pushing things to their limits, aren't you? how on earth do you think the price will get to $10,000 by 2020? 2020 is around 4 years away... which means the price must increase with $2000 this year, $2000 in 2017, $2000 in 2018, $2000 in 2019, and $2000 in 2020. keep dreaming!

it's always group against group. the group of buyers of course like the feature of charging back for whatever reasons. as long as the group of buyers is larger than the group of sellers (which is exactly the case), then it's the majority that gets all the priority and most of the benefits in features. that's how it goes with paypal.

well, there is a huge difference between realistic optimism and not realistic optimism. of course i hope the price to reach $1000 this year, but as i said in my previous post, it won't happen, and definitely not before the block halving. it's better to set yourself some lower targets are you will only get disappointed once you see you are far off with your predictions.

the $800 price level is out of reach this year. at every round price level such as $500/$600/$700 there will be a massive amount of resistance. even staying above the $500 price level will be a more than difficult target for this year. there is not much beside the block halving and maybe even the block size increase to give the price a push forward. both happenings are simply not enough to make the price come close to $800 in 2016.

i actually prefer the price to stay relatively stable as it is right now. peaks and pumps are cool for traders looking to make profits, but calmth in the market will make less experienced people more comfortable using and buying bitcoin. i also hope the price will increase slowly.

there is nothing that will get delayed. if you realistically look at the current market and the demand levels, then there is no reason for the price to touch $500 this month or next month. if it happens it will happen just before the block halving, and that's somewhere in juli.

it's not very often that i agree with you, but in this case i do. there are way too many noobs believing the price to reach insanely high price levels just because of the block halving. the hype is complete now... reaching $500 or prices slightly above the $500 level is the most we can expect. after that there is no more halving hype talk. after the halving the price will either settle above $500 or it will come down to todays levels again.

current interest rates are already worthless. some banks have even said that they are even considering to charge negative interest rates the coming years on savings accounts. bitcoin is the perfect solution. that's why i prefer to keep holding the majority of my coins for many many years. it's better to prepare yourself now for the future instead of waiting for what's coming.

there are way too many dreamers here thinking the price to reach prices as $1000 and even higher. it's quite funny that these people are seriously believing their own nonsense. there will be a lot unhappy people once the block halving is done and the price didn't even top $550.

i don't hold any sub $200 coins, but i have bought several bitcoins below $250 in 2015 and i still have them in my cold wallets. i can sell them now and get a good profit from them, but i prefer to keep holding longer.

it's an expected price increase till now in the runup to the block halving. i only don't know how much steam there is left to push the price much higher than $500 in the coming months.

stores accepting bitcoin doesn't mean the price will go up to very high price levels. stores that do accept bitcoin as form of payment have some sort of a middle man as bitpay handling their transactions. bitpay converts the bitcoin payments into fiat and send the money to the merchants. that's how it goes.

there are barely solid holders here anymore. those who are indeed don't bother selling at these prices. most of the noobs will sell at these prices as they get excited very easily. once the price reaches $700 or $800 i will secure some profits.

not even for a moment. if we see the price break through the $600 price level, then we can consider it to be a more than great achievement. there is really no point in thinking about $1000 prices. it's simply not realistic to happen this year.