Bitcoin's gone a bit quiet

bowlhead99

ivormonee wrote: »

Two hours ago it was down 19% and since then it's gone up 7%. What does this mean? It means nobody has the foggiest idea what bitcoin is worth!

It opened today at $15.6k. The low 'mid price' was $11.16k on places with good liquidity like Bitstamp, though if you were trying to sell using some other places you'd have seen their bid prices at $10.7k mid morning and might have been duped into selling out well below market rate. It's now back at $14.3k.

So, you might have lost 30%+ over the course of the week but you might also have have made 30% today just by buying this morning and selling this evening.

Not a great medium of exchange if the market's opinion on the value of exchange is so changeable ; but lots of fun for those who just want to see their assets worth a new and randomised number each day - for better or worse.

ozaz

ivormonee wrote: »

It's down 19% so far today alone and people shrug it off as if it's just part of the normal course! If global stockmarkets fell 19% in a day there'd be widespread global panic of epidemic proportions with non-stop news featuring nothing but news stories puroprting as total armaggedon!

It is par for the course with cryptocurrencies and has been for several years. Also, all the cryptocurrencies combined are only worth about 0.5% of the world's stock markets. So, difference in coverage and concern would be completely reasonable.

Thrugelmir

ivormonee wrote: »

It means nobody has the foggiest idea what bitcoin is worth!

Which is what people have been saying for some time.........:santa2:

Bonnie151

ivormonee wrote: »

It's down 19% so far today alone and people shrug it off as if it's just part of the normal course! If global stockmarkets fell 19% in a day there'd be widespread global panic of epidemic proportions with non-stop news featuring nothing but news stories puroprting as total armaggedon!

Bitcoin is nothing like the stock market, though. If you have to make a comparison, it’s like the stock market on speed. It’s 24/7 365 days a year without any break. At lest the FTSE etc gets a breather in between sessions. Bitcoin is just relentless (except when an exchange like Coinbase temporarily suspends trading!) and, IMO, this amplifies the ups and downs.

I suppose you could vaguely compare it to one of the more volatile stocks on the AIM. I have the odd share there that can easily be up 25%+ one day and come crashing back down the next. Some of them are probably built on as much air as Bitcoin is as well.

Plus as ozaz states, the Bitcoin market is still tiny

(I actually think the coverage has been rather disproportionate to the small size- it’s been one of the leading stories in the Times/Telegraph etc email news headings this week)

talexuser

Bonnie151 wrote: »

it’s been one of the leading stories in the Times/Telegraph etc email news headings this week)

Which makes me wonder if breathless coverage like that encourages get rich quick people who don't really know exactly what they are buying.

JohnRo

Most of the mainstream coverage seems to be negative, ill informed and based on little more than prejudice, so I'm not sure that's a big factor in the ongoing adoption and price swings.

There's always the thundering herd mentality, FOMO, etc. driving the specualtive peaks but there's also a much more sedate and satisfactory progression taking place in terms of infrastructure, adoption and technical expertise.

jamei305

Thought I'd sell the 0.04008 bitcoins I had left on my PC from 2013 (when they worth a couple of quid).

The process reminded me of why bitcoin is flawed. It took 2 days to confirm and cost the equivalent of £25 transaction fee. I seriously don't see how bitcoin can be a viable currency for anything other than speculation.

markj113

So you have gone from a couple of quid to £480 at current rates and your upset about a £25 transaction fee.

This issue will soon be resolved with the lightning network coming online shortly.

onomatopoeia99

ColdIron wrote: »

A 30% plunge in a week, approaching 2008/09 GFC proportions, and not a peep.

23% rise in the last 24h according to gdax. It's volatile, we already knew. "Bitcoin is volatile" cant be a news story every day (well, it could, I suppose, like "Brexit is still being negotiated" is). It does seem to be worthy of a new topic on here every time it goes down though

veryintrigued

Whats worse a thread banging on about its value increasing hugely or a thread banging on about it decreasingly hugely?