No surprise to me

After gold being below $1700 in March and now near $1900/ounce we have this:

Bitcoin, ethereum plunge as sell-off smashes crypto sector:

Bitcoin and ether tumbled on Wednesday to 3-1/2 month lows, on track to post their largest one-day loss since March last year, in the wake of China’s move a day ago to ban financial and payment institutions from providing cryptocurrency services.

At one point during the meltdown, nearly $1 trillion was wiped off the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization.

“Bitcoin’s sharp price drop should come as no shock to the market,” said Gavin Smith, chief executive officer of crypto consortium Panxora.

“Any asset which has risen as much as bitcoin over the past year can be expected to have pullbacks as some investors withdraw profits, like we’re currently seeing. While often a brilliant investment opportunity, traders must remember that Bitcoin is still an emerging asset class and will continue to experience large price swings,” he added.

It’s only a brilliant investment opportunity if you don’t have any moral qualms about “fleecing the sheep” and have good timing.

This is no surprise to me and apparently not Tam either.

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8 thoughts on “No surprise to me

  1. I’m not up on Bitcoin, but isn’t it essentially an unregulated banking operation?

    • An unregulated stock that pays no dividend.
      And a foreign-based one, at that.
      So yes, basically the same thing.

    • It’s like regular money in the sense that there’s nothing backing it and it has no inherent value. It’s different in the sense that it doesn’t have a government mandate to treat it as real money. It’s very different in that the supply is limited, unlike paper money which can, and is, inflated at will without limit. And a practical difference is that governments tax its use, unlike the use of government money.
      I wouldn’t call it “foreign-based”; its operation is world-wide, with parts both inside and outside the USA.
      So yes, Richard, that’s exactly correct, “private sector fiat money”. It is, and it was designed that way. More precisely (at least in the case of Bitcoin, I don’t know the details of the others) fiat money without inflation.
      It’s weird to see people compare cryptocurrency with gold — the reasoning seems to be that neither is run by the government. But gold has real intrinsic value, and is much harder to lose (at least if you have it in hand — if you keep “gold” as account entries with some company, you get none of those benefits).

  2. what is a bitcoin? why, it is nothing at all. it is worth precisely what the contracting parties in each transaction say it is worth. sorta like money. only more ephemeral. and, if you get burned in a bitcoin transaction, and get the shit end of the stick, that is precisely what you have, with absolutely no recourse, anywhere. sorta like money.

    beauty, and worth, are precisely what they are perceived to be, in the eye of the beholder. sorta like money, only less so. try buying a cheeseburger at mcdonald’s with bitcoins. or, a box of .308’s, when the shit hits the fan.

  3. Can someone explain to me how bitcoin isn’t private sector fiat money.

  4. That being said, it’s pretty clear the CCP clamped down because they sure don’t want their subjects managing to wriggle even a little bit out of their clutches.

  5. Just the 21st Century version of Tulip Bulbs and Beanie Babies.

    Bitcoin’s value, like most cryptocurrency, is a measure of how much electricity they waste in verifying the blockchain. How that provides “value” is anyone’s guess but collective delusion in the “next big thing” is common in history. See above.

  6. Bitcoin….like ALL ‘cryptocurrencies’ is imaginary. It has ZERO tangible basis in reality. As such it is totally open to any and all manipulation and thus it’s value is only as much….or as little….as a persons belief in imaginary things. The same statement can to a great extent be said about the US dollar…..if it weren’t backed by the US government…..i.e. our military….it would have no intrinsic value either.

    Sooner or later BitCoin WILL become totally worthless. Replaced by something else. Again….the same can be said of the US Dollar.

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