When the gates opened on Bitcoin’s post-Thanksgiving rally that saw it top $11,300 in a matter of days, everyone was queuing to get aboard the roller coaster as mainstream individual adoption seemed to be in full swing.
Everything looked rosy as before the confetti had even settled on the $10,000 party the next cake was brought out with a brand new 11,000 candles on it. Wall Street was on board, John McAfee was betting his manhood on the rambunctious digital currency and nothing would end this monumental ride.
All this jubilation obviously triggered something in the volatile beast that is Bitcoin as just when you think you have a handle on things, the monstrous currency bucks the trend. $11,000 turned into $9,000 and suddenly a fifth of Bitcoin, and any investment for the newbies who put in at $11,000 disappeared into the night air. Panic.
Going to learn
There is a rather large sect of the global population sitting with pins held ready behind their backs waiting to pop the Bitcoin bubble and proudly declare it dead. They were there at $800 to $1,000 and they are still here at $8,000 to $10,000, but their pin is a lot more bent and blunt.
Bitcoin continues to die a thousand deaths, but like a cheesy Zombie movie, it is never down. The more things change, the more they stay the same and this latest drop has the same makings of many that have come before it.
Remember the post-chain split rally? Bitcoin had survived the war, and even made a new, very familiar looking friend, but it meant that the coin was invincible. Everyone and their mother was buying Bitcoin and the rally began as that boost of Wall Street money forced its way into the news and people were buying in like drunk partiers on the Las Vegas strip.
Suddenly, the speculative price became unsustainable and the inevitable correction came.
“So it’s just natural and normal for a market to have a correction after a run like that. Historically, Bitcoin corrects anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent,” Adam Sharp, the co-founder of Early Investing, said in September - but that tidbit of advice is golden in most situations.
Still, weak hands were shook, Bitcoin flooded back into the market at discount prices, and the vultures swooped. One doesn’t need a degree in economics to understand what happens when supply and demand act like this…
‘Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it’
Does that subheading not ring so true in the world of cryptocurrency? The amount of times Bitcoin has rallied, corrected, dipped and sprung back up to go even higher is too many to count on all your fingers and toes combined.
Redditor Exotemporal gives a boots-on-the-ground opinion that feels a little more real than those sprouted from billionaires who dabble in cryptocurrency.
“They don’t remember the past because they weren’t there to witness the previous dips,” the redditor wrote. “I can see why someone would think that a 20 percent drop that happens within minutes is scary as hell. They’ll learn that these dips that aren’t accompanied by bad news are just transfers of money from the weakest to the strongest hands. Dips are a regular occurrence and an opportunity for newcomers to buy discounted Bitcoins.”
Another, little greener user, also gave his personal feelings on the wild whiplash of a ride.
“I bought in at $8,250 and it stayed constant till the 9-11k big push,” wrote user Leathermanhelppls. “I was worried for a couple days that I bought at the all-time high and I’d lose out….now the real fun begins! This is the exhilaration whiplash that I was promised. Going to [hold] for all it’s worth!”
Secret symbol № 20: 9 What is this?