What happened?

[BernyJB]

Hello everybody, first time here.
I wasn't sure where to post this, please feel free to move it if I messed up.

Thing is, I'm yet to start my investment (maybe in the next few days). I've just finished a course by Chris Haroun on the subject.
So I've been keeping an eye on the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin for the past few days. As you all know, all three coins took a dive yesterday. What I just noticed is that all three fell about the same time (around 4 A.M. yesterday), and recovered also about the same time (24 hs. later, about 4 A.M. today).
Did anything happen, that would cause such a synchronized dip and recovery?
Thanks in advance. 

[mk4]

If bitcoin falls, like 90% of the time, almost all cryptocurrencies follow. The only ones that don't follow down are the ones who has heavy buyers in the first place.

Why is this the case? Because bitcoin still acts like sort of the "index" of the cryptocurrency markets; and that coin/BTC is still one of the most liquid trading pairs available on exchanges. even if coin/USD is slowly but surely catching up.

[BernyJB]

Oh! I see...
so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

[mk4]

Oh! I see...
so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

It's not that most coins follow bitcoin 100% of the time. Coins/tokens can move on their own even if bitcoin is stagnant if there are lots of people buying/selling it; due to various reasons like good news, influencers trying to pump their price, or maybe sometimes people just like the concept. Like how U.S. stocks individually move on their own, but almost all of the U.S. stocks crash in a synchronized manner when there's bad news concerning the government and/or the economy.

Now, what you should do will depend on what your end goal is in the first place.

[kryptqnick]

Oh! I see...
so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

Some coins can be independent, especially if they're low market capitalization barely known ones, but it's risky to invest in them because they are even more unpredictable and aren't really valuable for their users (people only buy them to get rich quick). So why not follow Bitcoin and simply take into account that major altcoins often follow its main tendencies? Sometimes they follow at a delay, so you can hypothetically take advantage of it. For example, the previous ATH was reached by Bitcoin in April, and Ethereum followed in about a month. Then Bitcoin reached the ATH on October 20, and Ethereum reached it yesterday.

[jackg]

so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

I think it might be missing the point, because, almost all coins end up following bitcoins lead at some point in their life and you're probably not going to notice when that starts.

If you want to invest exclusively in crypto - buy bitcoin or buy it with another coin you like the concept of and think will do well (especially if it's big/open source, on exchanges etc).

If you want to protect your investment - look at stocks&shares too and other assets you find interesting that are more stable.

[BernyJB]

Like how U.S. stocks individually move on their own, but almost all of the U.S. stocks crash in a synchronized manner when there's bad news concerning the government and/or the economy.

That's what I mean. I understand that most cryptocurrencies would follow general trends, but all three took a dive and recovered within minutes of each  other, and in all three cases the movement is not all that different.
For example, when Xiao Jin Ping forbade cryptos in China the crypto market (understandably) took a hit. Is there any external factor that affected prices yesterday, besides  normal market variability?

[mk4]

That's what I mean. I understand that most cryptocurrencies would follow general trends, but all three took a dive and recovered within minutes of each  other, and in all three cases the movement is not all that different.

Yes, it's really just THAT synchronized most of the time.

For example, when Xiao Jin Ping forbade cryptos in China the crypto market (understandably) took a hit. Is there any external factor that affected prices yesterday, besides  normal market variability?

Not that I know of. If they was any news, it's probably nothing major. It's just that people in the cryptocurrency space are mostly inexperienced retail investors/traders, that they can switch from bullish to bearish and vice versa in just a flip of a switch. Hence why price movements are sometimes exaggerated, because people buying/selling can trigger a sort of domino effect.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

OP, you're just starting out in the crypto market, and you've made one observation which I'd advise you to not expect to hold true in all cases.  If bitcoin and various altcoins behaved predictably, everyone would be getting rich trading and you wouldn't need to take a course to do it.

The truth is that crypto is extremely unpredictable, and bitcoin may or may not move in lockstep with altcoins.  Sometimes alts move by themselves (up or down) based on hype, increased demand, selloffs, or what have you.  You can look for explanations and listen to members give their thoughts on why the bitcoin/altcoin markets move together (or don't), but in the end you're the one who's got to pull the trigger when it comes time to trade--and don't expect the market to do what you want or expect it to do, because oftentimes it doesn't.

Good luck trading; I sincerely wish you the best, because it's not easy.

[BernyJB]

Got it! Thank you all for the replies.

[dothebeats]

Oh! I see...
so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

You can do that and there's nothing really wrong with it, although a word of advice, not every coin that doesn't follow bitcoin's lead tend to stay against bitcoin's movement. At some point, it has to come back and follow bitcoin's waves as its market activity will soon wane, and the money flowing in to that said coin would have to flow somewhere else once traders have already collected their profits.

Then again, cryptocurrencies are extremely unpredictable. One day, every coin follows bitcoin's movement, the next, they don't. It's just a matter of luck and how you read the markets. Pick coins that still has utility apart from being used as a cash cow by lots of traders.

[terrorJR]

Oh! I see...
so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

it is like that but indeed although most of the altcoins are following in the footsteps of bitcoin but there are some altcoins that stand alone.
and when you want to adopt and invest here I think it would be better if you focus on bitcoin and some of the altcoins that you like, indeed the risk may be very large but with the current volatility of bitcoin and adoption a lot is done and bitcoin recognition continues to increase I think bitcoin will still be good and there is nothing wrong with being here.

[BernyJB]

Thank you both.
I'm trying to learn as much as I can right now, before spending any money, or even making a decision.
I understand the importance of Bitcoin in the crypto market, but to be honest, I have at least two big problems with it:

1. In a market that boasts transparency, it remains a coin with an unknown founder.
2. I have read Bitcoin's whitepaper, and it's mostly an essay about the advantages of cryptocurrency, but not about Bitcoin. 

So while I have already decided I will most likely include Bitcoin in my future portfolio, I'm definitely not putting all my eggs in that basket...

[Silberman]

Hello everybody, first time here.
I wasn't sure where to post this, please feel free to move it if I messed up.

Thing is, I'm yet to start my investment (maybe in the next few days). I've just finished a course by Chris Haroun on the subject.
So I've been keeping an eye on the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin for the past few days. As you all know, all three coins took a dive yesterday. What I just noticed is that all three fell about the same time (around 4 A.M. yesterday), and recovered also about the same time (24 hs. later, about 4 A.M. today).
Did anything happen, that would cause such a synchronized dip and recovery?
Thanks in advance. 

I suppose you are familiar with the concept of correlation, basically since bitcoin is so dominant in this market, as the majority of the real world usage of cryptocurrencies comes from bitcoin, then this means that if bitcoin moves in one direction then the other coins in the market move in the same direction with a similar magnitude, so this solves one part of the mystery.

However why it happened around that time? Most of the time the most likely explanation is this happened because of supply and demand, basically there was enough demand to move the price to a certain threshold, this fired up the buy orders from traders and bots, which in return did the same for other traders and bots, so as you can see there is not a big mystery there either and it is just part of the natural movements of any market.

[andriarto]

Hello everybody, first time here.
I wasn't sure where to post this, please feel free to move it if I messed up.

Thing is, I'm yet to start my investment (maybe in the next few days). I've just finished a course by Chris Haroun on the subject.
So I've been keeping an eye on the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin for the past few days. As you all know, all three coins took a dive yesterday. What I just noticed is that all three fell about the same time (around 4 A.M. yesterday), and recovered also about the same time (24 hs. later, about 4 A.M. today).
Did anything happen, that would cause such a synchronized dip and recovery?
Thanks in advance. 

I suppose you are familiar with the concept of correlation, basically since bitcoin is so dominant in this market, as the majority of the real world usage of cryptocurrencies comes from bitcoin, then this means that if bitcoin moves in one direction then the other coins in the market move in the same direction with a similar magnitude, so this solves one part of the mystery.

However why it happened around that time? Most of the time the most likely explanation is this happened because of supply and demand, basically there was enough demand to move the price to a certain threshold, this fired up the buy orders from traders and bots, which in return did the same for other traders and bots, so as you can see there is not a big mystery there either and it is just part of the natural movements of any market.

if you look at the three are the top ranking in cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin as the leader over all existing crypto. price formation is based on the law of supply and demand, when they go down and up at the same time then there is a transaction in the same direction, and I think this is still preceded by bitcoin's price reaction

[Darker45]

Oh! I see...
so it would make sense to get coins that don't follow bitcoin's lead, then. Am I right, or am I oversimplifying it?

Uh uh, this is going to be a big disaster. This is oversimplifying things indeed. Not only should you choose altcoins which follow Bitcoin's lead, if possible choose Bitcoin itself. Why do you have to choose a different coin when you can choose the one that leads?

Actually, while it may be often true that when Bitcoin dives majority of the altcoins also dive, and that when Bitcoin starts to recover the altcoins will also begin to recover, it is also true that when Bitcoin is so bullish that it rallies so high and quick most of the altcoins will suffer.

[mk4]

1. In a market that boasts transparency, it remains a coin with an unknown founder.

It's a feature, not a bug. Having an unknown founder means that we have no idea about his/her/their political views, other intentions, etc. And especially knowing that the founder isn't active anymore, it makes the decision making around Bitcoin's protocol updates more decentralized.

2. I have read Bitcoin's whitepaper, and it's mostly an essay about the advantages of cryptocurrency, but not about Bitcoin. 

Take note that all the cryptocurrencies you can see right now on CoinMarketCap doesn't exist at the time the Bitcoin whitepaper was written. Bitcoin bootstrapped all that. If you really want to learn Bitcoin's advantages though, you'd have to look outside the whitepaper, on other articles. Obviously because Bitcoin has almost nothing to compare to back then.

[Wexnident]

I understand the importance of Bitcoin in the crypto market, but to be honest, I have at least two big problems with it:

1. In a market that boasts transparency, it remains a coin with an unknown founder.
2. I have read Bitcoin's whitepaper, and it's mostly an essay about the advantages of cryptocurrency, but not about Bitcoin. 

#1 is not even a problem imo, Bitcoin works as intended and would continue to do so with or without the influence of its founder, it was made that way after all. It pushes forth the idea that Bitcoin isn't influenced by any factors other than the general supply and demand. Honestly, if you're looking at it as an investment then nows the right time with it being only a decade old. It is designed as a currency after all, so I'd reckon after a few more decades price would gradually stabilize, or at the very least, have minimal movement that could negatively affect transactions done through it.

[mamesso]

Starting a course on bitcoin does not 100% help you to continue to profit. The reason is that cryptocurrencies are unpredictable, price fluctuations will always occur at any time, within 1 hour Cryptocurrency movement can push prices up 100% and down 120% an hour later.
To avoid the risk of losing a lot of money, You need to be careful with the news sources you get and Always avoid crypto trading from expert advice, friends or Influencer.

Before you trade in crypto, it is very important to have personal knowledge and analysis to make the right decisions and be aware of the risks that can occur at any time.

[Haunebu]

The title of this thread is confusing and hilarious. Coming to the topic itself, the cryptocurrency market is extremely volatile op which is why these dips and surges are a regular thing honestly speaking.

You need to check the news regularly to understand the reasons behind these surges and dips though there is no reason sometimes. Invest only what you are willing to lose.