See my numerous posts saying it was an exxxxxxxxxxxxxxxample. Likely numerous more of my posts stating such to no avail.
See, this is what I mean. I always thought you were going down the rabbit hole to figure out what's really going on, so your argument that it's all just for illegal transactions is just sad. Don't just take on an opinion that has been formed by some monkeys or news headlines out of context. In fact there's even less illicit trade in BTC (about 2%) vs. the USD (about 5%) and the BTC part is rather exact because every transaction is visible on chain. I brought up Stigum because just like the world needs a market for USD lending and borrowing (Eurodollars) where the real interest rate is determined in absence of central bank intervention, the world needs a market for transactions without capital controls or barriers of entrance. If you think it's just about fraudsters who cannot use fiat, think again: Is it possible to cover your margin by transferring any sizable amount of fiat and getting it credited to your account on a Saturday afternoon within 10minutes from anywhere in the world? Probably...well, I'd say 100% no. Hammering that into your brain and correlating the stuff that is going on right now with the price of that utility helps you understand this market much better. Again, your hypothetical company can be backed by the hardest asset there is out there but if nobody wants to buy the shares you won't make anything as an investor. Asset backing does not determine price, buying and selling does
This is what you can effectively call a name-brand (recognition) 'Moat'. Kinda like how McD's, Coke, and even over-priced exploitive slave-camp companies like Nike work. In the modern capitalistic society, people no more base on want & need. Manipulative advertising targets the consumer in order to get them to over-pay for something. The consumer gets TRICKED into thinking there is more value in an identical product just because of the name/trend. Nike really stands out, as they not only manage to take advantage of China slave/child labour, but then they will market to the US consumer in disguise how they are really anti-oppressive and how you need to SUPPORT them because suddenly Black Lives Matter is a thing. Well didn't you know!? When CEOs jump on any trending social media/justice-warrior trend, caveat emptor! And ask, why the hell they didn't care before if this was really a thing? Oh--! The reality of the woke-train in America: As for BTC, it also has first-mover advantage to go along with name-brand recognition. At this point, even if Vitalik were to die, ETH most likely will still remain dominant in its following, and has continued to do so despite all the so-called Ethereum Killers that have popped up.
To sum up your post - there's many different buyers and sellers at different price levels? Well OK... So what about the ones buying in at or near the top, I'm sure there were many. Majority of buyers tend to join in at the later stages of a pump, I'm sure this one was no different. I know of a few who lost money with cryptos, I know none that made any.
Absolutely. 100's of millions, maybe even billions. They just didn't lose $2 trillion dollars, the equivalent of 10% of the U.S. economy lmao. Many of Madoff's victims had both paper and actual realized gains .... until they didn't.
I've read numerous news bulletins of crypto being hacked, stolen, lost. Security is a very large issue and governments won't guarantee safety of your accounts.
Crypto bull market is the most fun to trade... The reality is that people who hate Bitcoin and cryptos hate themselves for missing out on the many opportunities over many years We just finished a third bull/bear market cycle On the next cycle, these same crypto-haters will miss out on the opportunities again They'll wait for it to crash again then post their celebration posts and Monday night quarterbacking bullshits It is what it is
Ok, so it's a trade and not an investment. Got it. And finally I agree, it's something to get in and out of quickly, never hold.