Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[DavidLutz]

Price drop was because the lunar festival check the graphs here: 2015 https://i.imgur.com/BrwD1wp.jpg , 2016 https://imgur.com/FKvJtmI , 2017 https://imgur.com/QVJkDoc . More info here: https://bitcoinvest.cc

[fluidjax]

CME first contract closes tommorow, so no doubt the tin-foil hat brigade will be out again.

I'll pre-empt them....

Any large volumes over the next 24 hours can be attributed to Wall Street maniulating the price to profit from this contract closing.
I think we can expect a reversal of this movement once the contract has closed.

"Trading terminates at 4:00 p.m. London time on the last Friday of the contract month"

Strap-in or damp squib?   I dunno.

[rezurect007]

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUSD/LdOQGk60-Short-Term-Downtrend-3-Drives-PAttern-Target-8-5k-within-Feb/

Thanks, contrarian indicator confirmed. Please tell all your buddies to short with max leverage.  

The chart title does not reflect the intention. It's not a for a short.
Its 8.5k not 8-5k as in the  url:
I understand we might form support here and lift off.
Im holding since 9k.
Have buy orders all the way down, in case it heads that direction.

I do have very few 500$ coins from 2013. My original a/c in my sig. was hacked.

[vanobe]

CME first contract closes tommorow, so no doubt the tin-foil hat brigade will be out again.

I'll pre-empt them....

Any large volumes over the next 24 hours can be attributed to Wall Street maniulating the price to profit from this contract closing.
I think we can expect a reversal of this movement once the contract has closed.

"Trading terminates at 4:00 p.m. London time on the last Friday of the contract month"

Strap-in or damp squib?   I dunno.

How much money has been thrown at the CME first contract? If it's a massive amount the contract closing could = strap-in. If it's a small amount the contract closing could = damp squib.

[pera]

[...]
Serious question. I'm trying to understand the delusions and fallacies associated with the altcoin market. So far I'm still not getting it.

Or if you just consider it a "buy" because you think it's going to get pumped one day, then just say so. Penny stocks see their day in the sun sometimes too.

Most altcoins are just pump-and-dump schemes. But there are a few ones that are really trying to do novel things: see for instance Zcash and Monero (anonymous transactions), or Cardano and Ethereum (Turing complete smart contracts and PoS). Bitcoin is not trying to do those things, and I personally believe that's great (Unix philosophy), but there is no reason why others shouldn't try to develop solutions for a different set of problems.

My last Bitcoin transaction cost me a bit less than 2 USD (at that time) and took more than 7 hours for the first confirm. It was not as bad as those "$25 dollars txs" that so many people were complaining about, but it was not that good either... In contrast, Litecoin transactions cost a few cents and you get the first confirm in a couple of minutes. This is not to say that Litecoin is a better long term investment than Bitcoin, but if one had to pay for anything during a mempool crisis, Litecoin would be a better choice economically and practically speaking. So maybe part of the LTC rally we saw last year was simply due to this.

I believe once SegWit and LN finally get implemented and deployed everywhere, things will improve and maybe even be like in the "old" days for a few years at least. Not everyone shares this optimistic vision, but even if you do, you have to understand that if Bitcoin is extremely successful (i.e. massive global adoption) then tx volume will keep growing indefinitely, and of course fees will follow, meaning that on-chain txs won't be super common for ordinary people. We may see then a zoo of altcoins (in the same way today we have a zoo of gift cards, credit cards and state currencies) being used for different purposes and being traded using cross-chain atomic swaps.

[El duderino_]

Breaking 24777$ prediction game      FINAL LIST       

27/12/2017 bikerleszno
29/12/2018 cAPSLOCK 
30/12/2017 digithusiast
31/12/2017 Raja_MBZ
01/01/2018 elg
02/01/2018 wachtwoord
03/01/2018 JimboToronto
04/01/2018 d_eddie 
05/01/2018 BTCMILLIONAIRE
06/01/2018 HanvanBitcoin
07/01/2018 ghandi
08/01/2018 savetherainforrest
09/01/2018 explorer
10/01/2018 bicoinpsycho
11/01/2018 Bitcoinaire
12/01/2018 speedwheel
13/01/2018 undeadbitcoiner
14/01/2018 northypole
15/01/2018 ivomm
16/01/2018 maca068
17/01/2018 bitcoinvest
18/01/2018 last of the v8s
19/01/2018 mfort312
20/01/2018 1982dre
21/01/2018 flamast2
22/01/2018 RealMachasm
23/01/2018 willope
24/01/2018 kartala
25/01/2018 orpington
26/01/2018 rolling
27/01/2018 LFC_bitcoin
28/01/2018 jojo69
29/01/2018 CristiTCM
30/01/2018 rayX12
31/01/2018 realsteelboy
01/02/2018 twocorn
02/02/2018 mancroofer
03/02/2018 True Myth
04/02/2018 poolminor
05/02/2018 itod
06/02/2018 scheptan
07/02/2018 vapourminer
08/02/2018 alexeft
09/02/2018 siera
10/02/2018 AlcoHoDL
11/02/2018 Dunkelheit667
12/02/2018 yonton
13/02/2018 Wekkel
14/02/2018 Thekool1s
15/02/2018 starmman
16/02/2018 Globb0
17/02/2018 leveldkrypto
18/02/2018 olesh
19/02/2018 BitCoinBurger
20/02/2018 Paashaas
21/02/2018 flynn
22/02/2018 icygreen
23/02/2018 erisdiscordia
24/02/2018 phil_s
25/02/2018 sirazimuth
26/02/2018 Arriemoller
27/02/2018 yonton
28/02/2018 Muttley
01/03/2018 bones261
02/03/2018 heater
03/03/2018 soullyG
04/03/2018 InvoKing
05/03/2018 Notme
06/03/2018 sa_94
07/03/2018 NUFCrichard
08/03/2018 Imbatman
09/03/2018 Roombot
10/03/2018 STT
11/03/2018 badream
13/03/2018 erre
14/03/2018 julian071
15/03/2018 podyx
17/03/2018 fragout
18/03/2018 fabiorem
21/03/2018 dakustaking76
23/03/2018 nikauforest
31/03/2018 vroom
01/04/2018 somac.
02/04/2018 kurious
04/04/2018 fluidjax
05/04/2018 bitcoinbunny
08/04/2018 tyler1890
10/04/2018 ludwigvon
11/04/2018 hairymaclairy
16/04/2018 practicaldreamer
18/04/2018 free-bit.co.in
27/04/2018 drbrockoin
01/05/2018 sprinkles
02/06/2018 oblox
07/07/2018 IntroVert
03/08/2018 toxic2040
28/08/2018 bitserve
15/10/2018 Yefi
05/11/2018 mikenz
31/12/2018 melman2002
01/01/2019 Spaceman_Spiff_Original
12/02/2019 FractalUniverse
21/04/2019 gentlemand
20/02/2020 romneymoney
18/12/2021 luckygenough56

UPDATE     AND GOOD LUCK

[Elwar]

The triangle closes around the 28th. I predict it drops down within this long term trend line.

[Wekkel]

Want to really see that DAG under stress.

Actually, I would like to see:
* basic wallet functionality like generating a random wallet address
* transactions always confirming
* fool proof solution to avoid address reuse (=vulnerable under IOTA system)

Before that happens, I do not consider it a buy until below $0.50.

/off topic

The real question is why would you consider it a "buy" at all? Does it feel good to have a slick hypothetically functioning payment system that mimics Bitcoin, but no one ever uses to buy things with because there is zero merchant adoption?

...

I don’t think Bitcoin is established (yet) as the sole cryptocurrency of choice for everyone on planet Earth. Adaption in genuine use cases is a non-existent feature for now, also for Bitcoin. Frankly, I do not think that Bitcoin will ever take the position as one and only cryptocurrency and that we will remain forever to have a variety of coins (including FIAT brothers) with their own fans. Yes, I expect Dogecoin to be still there after 10 years, whether (micro)pennystock or not (just like Tittycoin or other shitcoin). It does not matter.

For now, the race for leadership is still fully on with Bitcoin having a lead but that’s not carved in stone. It is not said that this will be the case forever. In a use case whereby ‘no fees’ micro transactions are vital, IOTA would clearly have a lead over most other cryptocurrencies, assuming they can get their clusterf* of a wallet and network stability up to standards.

Besides that, having various altcoins around with new variations and technologies popping up all the time is vital for the survival of this digital phenomenon. Adapt continuously or die. So I welcome altcoins instead of loathing them.

TL;DR: Bitcoin still reigns, but it will not be forever. I see a purpose and place for various altcoins.

[HairyMaclairy]

SEC Statement - surprisingly supportive of crypto. 

Distributed ledger technology, or DLT, is the advancement that underpins an array of new financial products, including cryptocurrencies and digital payment services. Many have identified DLT as the next great driver of economic efficiency. Some have even compared it to productivity-driving innovations such as the steam engine and personal computer.

Our task, as market regulators, is to set and enforce rules that foster innovation while promoting market integrity and confidence. In recent months, we have seen a wide range of market participants, including retail investors, seeking to invest in DLT initiatives, including through cryptocurrencies and so-called ICOs—initial coin offerings. Experience tells us that while some market participants may make fortunes, the risks to all investors are high. Caution is merited.

A key issue before market regulators is whether our historic approach to the regulation of currency transactions is appropriate for the cryptocurrency markets. Check-cashing and money-transmission services that operate in the U.S. are primarily state-regulated. Many of the internet-based cryptocurrency trading platforms have registered as payment services and are not subject to direct oversight by the SEC or the CFTC. We would support policy efforts to revisit these frameworks and ensure they are effective and efficient for the digital era.

The CFTC and SEC, along with other federal and state regulators and criminal authorities, will continue to work together to bring transparency and integrity to these markets and, importantly, to deter and prosecute fraud and abuse. These markets are new, evolving and international. As such they require us to be nimble and forward-looking; coordinated with our state, federal and international colleagues; and engaged with important stakeholders, including Congress.

http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7680-18

[infofront]

This guy makes a good case for why the CME futures expiry tomorrow will be a nonevent: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7syd2c/expiring_futures_tomorrow_not_so_fast/

The CME futures expire tomorrow, and everyone is panicking that Wall Street will manipulate the price downward to gain the most profit... But it's not that simple; CME has limits on what any given entity can hold, that make it almost unprofitable given the cost of manipulation.

Any entity is limited to owning 1k contracts containing 5btc each. Every $5 move in bitcoin is a $25 profit/loss on a contract. In the recent month, we saw the price move from $19k to $10k potentially tomorrow at expiration - accounting for a $9k price move, meaning $45M possible profit (per entity holding the maximum 1k contracts; every $1k move in btc price equals a $5M profit/loss). I am a realist, and do believe that multiple entities could collect and agree on a direction (for example 10 groups) meaning the profit would be $450M for the month of January. However, open interest today says this isn't happening (more on that below).

To manipulate the price today, it costs about $15M to buy all the btc within $1k of the current price (based on the depth chart in GDAX). The group of 10 entities (referenced above) could agree to spend $15M to move the price lower by $1k, thus gaining the group of 10 a total of $50M (or a $35M profit for the group by spending $15M). This will not hold the price down the $1k, however, and many traders would instantly gobble up the orders at the lower price, meaning the entities would need to do this multiple times to keep the price low. A realistic strategy for Wall Street is going to be to hold their "manipulation money" until right before the market closes, and push price down in the hours leading up to expiration (4pm London time, or 11am Eastern Time for CME futures).

As the market matures and becomes more balanced, these opportunities will be harder to accomplish, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable that this could happen tomorrow, but likely in the 9am-11am hours, and likely immediately rebound back.

Finally, the open interest on the futures expiring tomorrow is currently at 1,459 contracts, meaning the total bitcoin in play here is 7,295 btc or ~$80M, meaning the cost of manipulation will dramatically cut into profits. This also means there is not a group of 10 entities teaming up to manipulate the price.

Just food for thought as people prepare for the Wall Street futures dip tomorrow...

TLDR; I don't think it'll happen, the business case and open interest just isn't there.

[Torque]

For now, the race for leadership is still fully on with Bitcoin having a lead but that’s not carved in stone. It is not said that this will be the case forever. In a use case whereby ‘no fees’ micro transactions are vital, IOTA would clearly have a lead over most other cryptocurrencies, assuming they can get their clusterf* of a wallet and network stability up to standards.

Besides that, having various altcoins around with new variations and technologies popping up all the time is vital for the survival of this digital phenomenon. Adapt continuously or die. So I welcome altcoins instead of loathing them.

...  I see a purpose and place for various altcoins.

You guys still talk about all these various coins in some hypothetical future where you see them being "used" for various things. But without the ONE CRITICAL thing, mass merchant adoption, they won't be used for anything other than trading. That's all. Years and years will pass by, and they won't have achieved merchant adoption on any significant level. So what then?  Just trade?

How long will you guys give these also-ran shitcoins before the fallacy of "some future use case blah blah blah" never materializes? A few years? A decade? Two? There is only so long that something can exist on pure hype.

Besides that, having various altcoins around with new variations and technologies popping up all the time is vital for the survival of this digital phenomenon. Adapt continuously or die.

That is a GIANT fallacy if I've ever heard one. Bitcoin in no way shape or form has to continuously "evolve" beyond a certain point to become the predominant form of digital money or digital gold 2.0 on a worldwide scale. (Notice I said "beyond a certain point", bc it is not there quite yet).  In the same way Gold does not have to continuously "evolve" to be a sound physical store of value.

[Toxic2040]

I am calling for a nice little spike within 36 hours.

Remember: NO LUBE !

EDIT: Meh. Pulled my sell wall @ $12.5k, for... reasons.

Bobbie..its going to be ok.

[JayJuanGee]

I am calling for a nice little spike within 36 hours.

Remember: NO LUBE !

EDIT: Meh. Pulled my sell wall @ $12.5k, for... reasons.

Bobbie..its going to be ok.

Oh.. you can gloat now, Toxic.

Yesterday, you were shaking in your boots regarding potential consequences of such an inaccurate BTC price prediction.

I will add that it seems that BTC prices are still in a kind of bouncing around territory, and even largely in the middle our current price consolidation range - perhaps $10k-ish to $13k-ish.

[jojo69]

ASSLESS CHAPS

ASSLESS CHAPS

ASSLESS CHAPS

[Toxic2040]

I am calling for a nice little spike within 36 hours.

Remember: NO LUBE !

EDIT: Meh. Pulled my sell wall @ $12.5k, for... reasons.

Bobbie..its going to be ok.

Oh.. you can gloat now, Toxic.

Yesterday, you were shaking in your boots regarding potential consequences of such an inaccurate BTC price prediction.

I will add that it seems that BTC prices are still in a kind of bouncing around territory, and even largely in the middle our current price consolidation range - perhaps $10k-ish to $13k-ish.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day..  /s

Naa..not my style JJG..I am actually concerned for Bob. Dealing with end game financials is enough to make anyone on edge. If anything I am still recovering from this Weiss report...left a sour taste I do believe.

[Samarkand]

...


How long will you guys give these also-ran shitcoins before the fallacy of "some future use case blah blah blah" never materializes? A few years? A decade? Two? There is only so long that something can exist on pure hype.

...

I think they will not really die, but rather linger on for a fraction of their former value.

If a cryptocurrency newcomer asks me about my opinion of altcoins I usually gently guide him
towards these articles that destroy all altcoin enthusiasm pretty fast:
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/the-problem-with-altcoins/
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/the-coming-demise-of-altcoins/
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/appcoins-are-snake-oil/
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/its-not-about-the-technology-its-about-the-money/

These articles are a few years old, but nothing has really changed except that
a few new platforms where these coins/tokens are launched have emerged (e.g. ICOs
on top of Stellar or NEO).

[Dabs]

Serious question. I'm trying to understand the delusions and fallacies associated with the altcoin market. So far I'm still not getting it.

Or if you just consider it a "buy" because you think it's going to get pumped one day, then just say so. Penny stocks see their day in the sun sometimes too.

What's that saying, our mind is like a parachute. It works better if it's open.

90%, or 95%, or maybe even 99% of the altcoin market are all shitcoins or just utter garbage. There are those few 1%, and I can't even name them because I don't know them all, otherwise I'd be trading them too.

Some are trying to do things that hasn't been done, and some of them are all doing the same things one alt is trying to do too, such as all these privacy oriented coins, the biggest of which is Monero (and I have no stake in it, I don't hold or trade Monero), or Dash, and in that one's case they have these other "features" that incentivize the network to run "masternodes" which is trending these days.

There are even CoinMarketCap-like sites for them, I count maybe 4 or 5, you really only need to look at 1 or 2.

For all cases, the good ones are indeed good buys, as well as world changing disruptive tech. File storage. Decentralized databases. Privacy. Libraries? Real estate.. it's dot-com and 99% of them are going to Burst (that one popped awhile ago, but Burst seems to have revived now.)

There are more than 2000 alts / tokens. It's a giant dart board or you could say you fire a shotgun, you will hit one of these 1% wonder coins.

Again, I have my bets, but I don't know all of them, or any of them for sure until they get big, but I've managed to trade my way or hodl my way to double digit BTCs. And I'm not even a day trader nor do I run bots (I've seen bots in action, tried a few I think.)

You can call them delusions or fallacies. Some have actual real "merit". For those, I consider them tools of the trade. Or a means to an end. In the end, it's all a gamble, I just like the odds better on some of them that few people see for now (then everyone else will see it and have their "Napster" moment, that one dies and gets "torrented", but the world changes anyway.)

Even Litecoin has a purpose. It's a Bitcoin testnet on a live mainnet with value. Because the Bitcoin testnet itself is supposed to be valueless and it's been reset a few times in the past, and idiots attempted to trade testnet coins.

I get that you don't get it. You have to go deep in the rabbit hole, not just an aerial view from above.

Still working on getting to triple digits ...

[JayJuanGee]

I am calling for a nice little spike within 36 hours.

Remember: NO LUBE !

EDIT: Meh. Pulled my sell wall @ $12.5k, for... reasons.

Bobbie..its going to be ok.

Oh.. you can gloat now, Toxic.

Yesterday, you were shaking in your boots regarding potential consequences of such an inaccurate BTC price prediction.

I will add that it seems that BTC prices are still in a kind of bouncing around territory, and even largely in the middle our current price consolidation range - perhaps $10k-ish to $13k-ish.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day..  /s

Naa..not my style JJG..I am actually concerned for Bob. Dealing with end game financials is enough to make anyone on edge. If anything I am still recovering from this Weiss report...left a sour taste I do believe.

I think that you realize that even thought there may be some attempt at communicating substantive messages, some of these comments are in an exaggerated form of fun, too, and I have already done a kind of back of the napkin calculation of the Bob situation that makes me ssssssssoooooooooo  sssssssssssooooooo   worried for him, too.

I know that there are some claims that he has around 1k coins, but I put it at around 650 (after he had made his most recent $1million claim of coins).   So, yeah, we should worry for bob.... hahahahahhahaha  Problems of the .01%, no?

Certainly, I am not jealous of Bob - because I have plenty of coins myself.... around 10-ish.... give or take some.....  hahahahahaha

[conspirosphere.tk]

Remember: NO LUBE !

EDIT: Meh. Pulled my sell wall @ $12.5k, for... reasons.

You would be still a crypto-millionaire with BTC at $3000 and you're being so anal... meh.

[JayJuanGee]

exaggerated form of fun, too

I tried to merit you 3.14 sMerit. I think we need Merit divisible to at least 8 decimal places.

Exactly... would be much more fun with a bit more divisibility, but seems like Theymos has gone with a quasi - "all or nothing" "use it or lose it" approach rather than granting a power to parse.