Bitcoin has so much value because it's not controlled by government or some organization, not because it's digital. Government-controlled fiat digital money are not a true competitors of Bitcoin. I think digitalization will only increase Bitcoin's value, since there will always be people who want to make private and secure transactions.
Bitcoin is concentrated behind the Great Firewall of China, most of the bitcoin trading takes place in China, and the price moves based on rumours about the Chinese govt and central bank.
It seems pretty centralised to me. I think it is only a matter of time where an alt with better geographic distribution breaks through. There are hundreds of alts trying and it needs just one to succeed.
I think that people think china has much more pull in BTC than it really does..
Thier exchange volumes are because of high frequency day traders, maybe half is fake, idk, but not all..
I put down massive volume on huobi compared to my net assets because I can make a million trades locking in small profits along the way and use leverage both directions..
I thought I put down a lot of volume on Cryptsy trading about 10X my assets for weekly volume, no..
On huobi I can put down 10X my asset volume in 1 trade!! 1 trade!!
1 5X margin buy and then sell to take profits = 10X trade volume of my net assets..
And on a focused trading day I do that 10-50-100 times..
MASSIVE trade volume as compared to net assets..
No trading fees ROCK because the way I daytrade I take about 2 stoplosses for every good profit, so it really saves me a lot when I sell right back to the same price I bought at if I decide it didn't go the way I thought it was going to go..
Just canceling out my trade = 10X trade volume of net asset if I hit the all balls button..
I'll admit that I on average use about 80% of all balls margin but that's still massive trade volume as compared to the actual funds I have in my account to trade with..
I actually feel MUCH more comfortable using heavy margin off of a smaller account net asset balance that I would using no margin and just trading a larger balance..
Because if it goes goxsy I only loose the net asset but can trade as if I put much more BTC into the account.. So I only have to worry about 20% as much loss if the exchange gets hit because I can make up for the size of the deposit by using margin..
Would you rather deposit 1 BTC and be able to trade as if you deposited 5BTC only risking 1BTC to a gox, or would you rather deposit 5BTC and use no margin risking 5BTC to a gox?
Me, I'll use that all balls margin button and risk less to a gox..
Margin fees = 00.1% per day.. Cheap insurance..