3 Reasons for the Crypto Collapse

in #bitcoin6 years ago

bitseven.com - The bad old days are back. Crypto prices are in free fall and no one’s sure where the bottom lies. Even mighty Bitcoin wasn’t spared as prices crashed below the $6,000 mark—regarded by many as an unofficial floor—and then fell further to below $5,000. What’s going on?

Three recent events might explain the current collapse. The first is the SEC’s announcement on Friday that the operators of two “Initial Coin Offerings” (ICOs) broke the law by selling unlicensed securities, and must pay fines and restitution. As others have noted, this is only the beginning: Crypto bros spent most of 2017 poking the SEC bear, and now the bear is awake and ready to mete out a world of punishment. This development might be enough to spook some crypto investors, but it hardly come as a surprise. Anyone paying attention to the regulatory space knew this was coming, and so much of the fallout should have been priced into crypto token prices already.

Likewise, it’s hard to see how last week’s Bitcoin Cash fork—a second possible explanation for the crypto crash—could tank the market so badly. Sure, the fork was messy and created renewed centralization concerns over Bitcoin Cash. This hurt the price of Bitcoin Cash, and possibly spread contagion to the rest of the market. But Bitcoin Cash has always been dodgy and dysfunctional, and the crypto world has weathered forks before, so it’s hard to see how this triggered the crash.

This leaves a third possibility: Crypto investors got spooked by bad news from chip-makers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, which recently reported steep sales declines for cryptocurrency equipment. The sales declines suggest interest in crypto has waned, and is unlikely to pick up anytime soon. This could explain the chill on crypto asset prices, but also raises a chicken-and-egg question: Namely, is the chip makers’ misery a cause of the collapse, or just another symptom of it?

It’s possible, of course, that it was a conflation of all three events that KO’d the crypto markets. That would be welcome news for investors, in a sense, because it would mean individual shocks explain the downturn—and markets recover from shocks.

There is, however, a more existential explanation for the collapse: the whole thing is a bust. This is the position of tech exec Sam Gellman who, in a thoughtful series of tweets, points out that crypto has sucked up $30 billion in ICO money in two years and hasn’t delivered a user base beyond crypto speculators. It’s been ten years since Bitcoin came out, he says, and there is little of value to show for it. Needless to say, plenty of folks are popping up to refute Gellman but, if he’s right, look for investors to keep rushing for the exits.

bitseven.comBitcoin leveraged trade at 100x leverage maximum, 100% profit at 1% price raise
Make a profit whether the bitcoin price rises or falls
BITCOIN LEVERAGE TRADING YOU CAN TRUST

Sort:  

Congratulations @bitsevendeutsch! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made more than 200 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 300 upvotes.

Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

Meet the Steemians Contest - The results, the winners and the prizes
Meet the Steemians Contest - Special attendees revealed
Meet the Steemians Contest - Intermediate results

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @bitsevendeutsch! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.29
TRX 0.12
JST 0.033
BTC 69715.93
ETH 3772.35
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.77