i am usually the one who makes a topic like this
but i usually do it before a major dip, i didn't see any major dips this time, although this dip was good too and in my opinion these types of dips are mostly good for traders who want to make some nice amount of profit in short term.
most other investors who are (mostly) long term investors can buy anytime they want an still make profit.

i disagree.
maybe back in 2009 that many thought bitcoin is anonymous and also back when "blockchain analysis" companies didn't exist and the real anon coins weren't popular.

these days most people know bitcoin is not anonymous.
there are blockchain analysis companies
and there are anon coins such as XMR which are being used to cover tracks.

which means this can not have that big a effect on bitcoin to even be considered as a "factor".

illegal activities are all in the same group. and all of them are much easier with cash than they are with bitcoin. it has also much less risk to do it with cash.

scams drive the price down not up. (unless that is what you meant)

that was a pleasant surprise. thanks.

most altcoins like ETH are still on the way down and there is a pretty good chance that they will continue getting dumped for the rest of the week. specifically when the panic selling starts for these big coins the price takes a pretty big hit.

the other smaller altcoins like NEO seem to be at a pretty good place. although i will wait a little bit longer before starting to buy but that is in my list. NEO and LTC.
for ETH i will wait much longer than the others and probably only invest if i see it rise not just a dead cat bounce.

how much i am wiling to invest in bitcoin?
up to 80% of my whole money in the world. and it was actually at that percentage at some point. but i reduced it a little after a while.
the reason is obvious. bitcoin is the only one with real potential in long term and i have never regretted investing in bitcoin. also i mostly buy the dips to increase my share of bitcoin.

how much i am wiling to invest in altcoins?
less than 10%
the reason for this is obvious too. altcoins are highly risky. you can see in the past couple of days each of them lost at least 30% of their values and they are still dropping down. and when they drop they stay down. there is no coming back up to previous highs ever again.

first of all stop spreading FUD

secondly stop spreading FUD in altcoin board about bitcoin. there is a board for your FUD called speculation board this board you posted this in is for altcoins!

finally. a lot of people have been saying a lot of bullshit about bitcoin for as long as bitcoin existed. you think you and the person you are quoting are the same to do so! even back when price was $1 idiots online were saying "bitcoin price will collapse". it really doesn't make any difference though. bitcoin is on its own path and even if millions of topics say it will collapse it will not and if millions of topics say it will rise it still will not.

the trend is obvious and perfectly visible on the charts...

it is very hard to tell to be honest.
we all had an easy time predicting the bitcoin cash fork fate but this one is very different. SegWit2x was always the plan for about 4 months. they activated SegWit with it and want to go ahead with the second part of the same plan to activate 2x part now (2 MB hard fork?). if it gains the same 100% support of miners like SegWit i honestly can't say what will happen to bitcoin!
will the community switch to it? or will there be drama?
what if it gains less than 100%? something like 60 or 70%? things are scary in my opinion

so far it seems like the only effect b2x future market had was an increase in bitcoin price or maybe it is just a coincidence because nobody takes "future markets" seriously. and bitcoin price is currently above $4500! for the first time after a long while of big drop followed by a slow rise.

the closer we get there may be some fluctuations which can go either way but i say because we already had a very big drop down to 3k range it is not possible to see any big drop in bitcoin price because all the weak hands are already out and have not yet came back.

i am sorry to break your illusions but ethereum is not even close to bitcoin to be able to even compete with it. not as a currency nor as an investment. ETH is just a pump and dump and your POLL needs to have more options such as lower prices like $10 which would be my choice of price in 2018 for ETH.

so far ethere was mineable and things were pretty good for it. but in the near future they are going to put an end to the good days of mining and a lot of people will dump their tokens and go out to mine other stuff which are more profitable for them.

why is everyone these days are surprised to see the altcoin dumps! that is a perfectly normal thing to happen to altcoins. in fact it is pretty common that altcoins get dumped like this. all together and all big. that is why we call them pump and dumps anyways.

i see some people came up with a lot of "reasons" for it like the bitcoin fork and bitcoin price,... but it really isn't that. it is simply because these altcoins were all in big bubbles and now they are bursting and price is coming down to normal levels which are logical prices not unrealistic and manipulated high prices.

this is just a wave of new shitcoins, don't think too much about them. if they have an airdrop just go claim and enjoy the free money that comes out of nowhere in your pocket pretty easily. these tokens are just using the names of popular coins to get some hype out of them otherwise there is absolutely no reason for them to exist, they are not doing anything, not solving any problems, not contributing to any advancement of cryptocurrencies. they just exist to get dumped and the owner to get some money.

whenever you want to purchase with fiat (no matter what method of fiat deposit you choose) you will have to send your documents including picture,... to the place you are doing the purchase from. that is not just about credit cards. some places don't even allow you to buy anything if you don't verify your account first.

it depends on amount of profit you are planning to gain.
obviously you must always have bitcoin and that always gains value over time.

as for airdrops and fork rewards, you should calculate what amount of profit you will gain by converting back to bitcoin and what amount of profit you lose by doing it.
for example if you have an investment in an altcoin that is going to get pumped 300% in the next week and you convert back to bitcoin you lose a lot of profit. because the airdrops won't give you that much profit most probably.

so in the end it will only be a weighing of options against each other.

i honestly wouldn't be surprised because ETH is centralized and controlled by the foundation and Wall Street may even be involved since there are big pockets manipulating ETH.

but generally speaking this new hard fork of ethereum is a very scary one. there is even speculation of a hard price dump because of it. and it may cause a lot of issues in the near future. not to mention that the fork itself has not been ready and it seems the code is very rushed, which makes it possible for a lot of bugs and bugs mean a lot of money loss. (it wouldn't be the first time people lose money because of ETH bug).

and for all we know, after this fork there may be another chain left! another ETC.

it is all about earning more money. it has always been like this, nothing has changed and no new motivation has been added. only the methods change.

for years there has been lots of shitcoins being created with no real value but they have all gained price and been traded. all it takes to make an altcoin is just a couple of clicks and spending some time possibly some small amount of money too. but in the end it is going to only be a temporary thing. they come, give some money to those with experience and make others lose a lot of money and then bite the dust just as fast.

more forks
more chains
more splits
more markets
more trades
more fees
=> more profit

why would these exchanges want anything else?! it is their dream come true.
for example bitcoin cash which doesn't even have any transactions on its blockchain anymore, has the 3rd highest trading volume of past 24 hours according to coinmarketcap.com
not to mention this was a lot bigger when it started and when it got pumped hard the first time (18-21 Aug).

the chances of this news being true are really dim.
the sources are not reliable and they are mostly making a guess. they don't have real proof. for example back when Steam started accepting bitcoin, everyone was speculating like this too but the difference was that by that time we had some small proof (Valve email to some Steam game devs telling them about bitcoin).

my speculation is that Amazon will eventually accept bitcoin. if it isn't this October it will be pretty soon. they will be left behind if they don't.

the thing about bitcoin is that it always rises. so it is a safe assumption to tell yourself that bitcoin price will be higher than today's price eventually in the near future. so whatever you make is going to be also an increased profit in fiat too.

the "connection" is not really a direct one though. it is mostly indirect connection and a reverse relationship. meaning whenever bitcoin is hot, altcoins are dropping mostly when bitcoin price goes down.

bitfinex is one of those exchanges that only cares about earning more money and nothing else! they do anything they can to achieve that goal too. remember the hack! a huge sum of bitcoin was stolen and we ever found out by whom, probably themselves.

and remember them having a market for bitcoin unlimited? that was the most messed up thing because there obviously was no future there. it could not exist and now we can see it never was created. it was merged into bitcoin cash. and they had that market separately too!

if bitcoin gold is the only focus of your question then there won't be any effect on bitcoin price because of it. this altcoin is a premined shitcoin that is being created only to produce money while sticking to the name of bitcoin and getting the attention that way.

otherwise creating an altcoin with these parameters that BTG has doesn't really create something good. it is just something you can mine and pump and dump while the developer holding the premined coins gets richer.