Digital currency Bitcoin hits new high before losing S$200 in value in one day

[cyclone]

Bitcoin hits new all-time high above $68,000 as cryptocurrencies extend rally
* Bitcoin’s price at one point rose above $68,000, eclipsing a previous record set in late October.
* Ether, the native currency of ethereum’s blockchain, also notched a record high of more than $4,800.
* These record-breaking moves come amid a wider rally in the crypto market.

MacKenzie Sigalos
PUBLISHED MON, NOV 8 20219:00 PM EST

Bitcoin and ether hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday, extending their rally from a day earlier.

Bitcoin’s price at one point rose above $68,000, eclipsing a previous record set in late October. The world’s biggest digital currency climbed as high as $68,521 before easing slightly to $67,935.

It was last up 3% in the past 24 hours as of 4:30 a.m. ET, according to Coin Metrics data.

Ether, the native currency of ethereum’s blockchain, notched a record high of $4,840, surpassing the $4,800 level for the first time ever.

The token traded about 2% higher in the last 24 hours at a price of $4,814.

These record-breaking moves come amid a wider rally in the crypto market. So-called “ethereum killers” solana and cardano are up 21% and 16% respectively in the last seven days.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which launched in October and tracks bitcoin futures contracts pegged to the future price of the cryptocurrency, was up more than 8% on Monday.

While it is difficult to link short-term price movements to any specific event – and cryptocurrency price charts are often rife with volatility – some analysts think that both bitcoin and ether will continue to trend upward in the weeks ahead.

In a note sent on Monday, Mikkel Morch, executive director at crypto hedge fund ARK36, said a $70,000 price for bitcoin now “seems imminent.”

Others have bolder projections for where bitcoin is headed, as JPMorgan recently doubled down on its prediction that bitcoin would ultimately hit $146,000, with a shorter-term price target of $73,000 for this year.

Next week, bitcoin rolls out its biggest upgrade in four years.

The software upgrade is known as Taproot. It will mean greater transaction privacy and efficiency – and crucially, it will unlock the potential for smart contracts, a key feature of its blockchain technology.

Meanwhile, ether has been on an upswing since it implemented Altair, a network upgrade that went live in late October.

More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/08/bitcoin-...highs.html

[weijian]

Well, most VBs are skeptical of bitcoin (me included). But I am all for experimentation as that means progress.

We all know the downsides of using bitcoin as a medium of exchange, from theory. In practice, it looks like it is working (at least in a bull market since mid 2019) on a small scale basis. Would be very interesting to observe how it works on a country wide scale (El Salvador is as big as Singapore in terms of population)

Bitcoin Beach: What Happened When an El Salvador Surf Town Went Full Crypto

Maria del Carmen, a mother of six, says she was skeptical about storing money on her phone. She reluctantly started accepting payments for her tiny eatery, run out of a kitchen in front of her home. Bitcoin now accounts for as much as half of her roughly $45 a day in sales. Four of her children have migrated to the U.S., where approximately 2.5 million Salvadorans live and send home $4.5 billion a year in remittances. Now, instead of receiving money from her daughter in California, del Carmen sent her $2,000 from Bitcoin savings, she says. She still has almost $2,000 in the account.

At the Point Break Café, owner Enzo Rubio says his strategy with all the Bitcoin payments that come in is to treat them as a savings account he doesn’t plan to touch. The first order he accepted in Bitcoin was worth $10 back in November. When I was there, that value went up to $30, and it’s now just above $22. He’s ridden these bouts of volatility by paying close attention to Bitcoin’s moving average, he says, already describing his strategy in crypto parlance: he’s HODL, Bitcoiner language for “buy and hold.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/...l-salvador

There is definitely a case for El Salvador to go digital as most El Salvadorans work in the United States and their remittance costs are astronomically high (as high as mid teens). But I am not sure that bitcoin is the solution. For this experiment, we will know whether it works down the road in another 6-12 months' time (earlier than my original expectations)

IMF urges El Salvador to remove Bitcoin as legal tender

The directors "urged the authorities to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing Bitcoin's legal tender status," according to a statement from the International Monetary Fund. The officials "stressed that there are large risks associated with the use of Bitcoin on financial stability, financial integrity, and consumer protection" and with issuing Bitcoin-backed bonds.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/governm...gal-tender

[CY09]

If remittance cost is the problem, then digital banks/Fintech are the answers.

In Singapore we have revolut and youtrip who allow us to convert and send FX at lower fees than physical remittance. There is SingTel dash as well who caters to the Philippines group here.

Just wondering why there is not a US equivalent. It is a market especially where there are so many migrant American workers

[cyclone]

40% of bitcoin investors are now underwater, new data shows
* Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode.
* In the last month alone, 15.5% of all bitcoin wallets fell into an unrealized loss, as the world’s most popular cryptocurrency plunged to the $31,000 level, tracking tech stocks lower.
* Bitcoin’s close correlation to the Nasdaq challenges the argument that the cryptocurrency functions as an inflation hedge.

MacKenzie Sigalos
PUBLISHED MON, MAY 9 20223:37 PM EDTUPDATED MON, MAY 9 202210:58 PM EDT

Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode.

That percentage is even higher when you isolate for the short-term holders who got skin in the game in the last six months when the price of bitcoin peaked at around $69,000.

In the last month alone, 15.5% of all bitcoin wallets fell into an unrealized loss, as the world’s most popular cryptocurrency plunged to the $31,000 level, tracking tech stocks lower. Bitcoin’s close correlation to the Nasdaq challenges the argument that the cryptocurrency functions as an inflation hedge.

Analysts from Glassnode also noted an influx of “urgent transactions” amid this latest sell-off, in which investors paid higher fees, indicating they were willing to pay a premium in order to expedite transaction times. The total value of all on-chain transaction fees paid reached 3.07 bitcoin over the last week — the largest yet recorded in its dataset.

“The dominance of on-chain transaction fees associated with exchange deposits also signaled urgency,” continued the report, further supporting the case that bitcoin investors were seeking to de-risk, sell, or add collateral to their margin positions in response to recent market volatility.

During the sell-off this past week, more than $3.15 billion in value moved into or out of exchanges, the largest amount since the market hit its all-time high in November 2021.

More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/09/40percen...-data.html

[specuvestor]

The rise of cost of money brings in the tides and the nakedness:

The price of the Terra (LUNA) cryptocurrency has fallen by more than 99 per cent, wiping out the fortunes of crypto investors.

Terra, which ranked among the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies, dropped below $1 on Wednesday, having peaked close to $120 last month.

The majority of the losses were realised overnight, with a 98 per cent price fall in the space of just 24 hours.

The dramatic crash meant its market cap dropped from above $40 billion to just $500 million, resulting in unprecedented losses for investors in a leading cryptocurrency.
https://sg.yahoo.com/finance/news/lost-l...48125.html

[specuvestor]

Bitcoin has gone higher than I could ever imagine. But the rise of cost of money is bringing in the tides and revealing the nakedness

Nonetheless I'm still wrong price wise until it goes below $5k Market can indeed be irrational longer than envy be contained

https://time.com/6175370/why-bitcoin-crashing/

I have stated my unreserved opinion in this rational forum on bitcoin because in my experience this is too obvious a duck.

Demand has to be based on fundamental demand which many MLM lacks. Why insurance is a valid MLM is because there is a fundamental demand for the consumption of insurance. Similarly bitcoin lack a fundamental demand except it is restrictive in supply. This is not a rare art piece but one generated by generic one and zeros. You can try to sell gaming items but the day of reckoning will come when these virtual items are worthless.

Gold has certain industrial uses as electrical interconnects and also storage of value from a historical antiquity and Bretton Woods legacy perspective. Even so Buffett's view on non productive gold is very clear. And I don't think bitcoin is productive or can be used for other purposes.

IMHO bitcoin is a product of virtual goods commerce and the misguided idea about fiat currency. History will repeat itself

[Wildreamz]

Yes. Does seems like end of the road for most alt coins. BTC and ETH will likely survive (too much vested interest by institutions and people with strong financial backing).

Let's hope that the contagion will be contained within the crypto market, and not spread to other financial systems.

Personal price target (assuming perfect bell-curve):
BTC: US~$10k
Eth: <$1k

(no positions, slight exposure through Square and Tesla)

[weijian]

Yes. Does seems like end of the road for most alt coins. BTC and ETH will likely survive (too much vested interest by institutions and people with strong financial backing).

Let's hope that the contagion will be contained within the crypto market, and not spread to other financial systems.

Personal price target (assuming perfect bell-curve):
BTC: US~$10k
Eth: <$1k

(no positions, slight exposure through Square and Tesla)

I reckon "mainstream" coins like BTC will survive based on the Lindy effect. It has been around for close to a decade and suffered a few crashes on its own (and survived). So there is some sort of anti fragility built into its system.

While I have no faith in BTC as an asset, but I do have faith that humans will continue to use BTC as the vehicle to gamble and try to get rich.

[Big Toe]

It is not just the more vulnerable crypto that is facing up to reality. Assets that are deemed more risky including story-based companies/ covid induced sales surge companies are not spared. Bitcoin will continue to exist even if speculators/investors are all taken off the equation. There is utilitarian value built into it but it is impossible to say how much that can be. We do know it is created from thin air and the ultimate value will probablity be determined by the real users. I maybe wrong but I suppose at this point in time, most holders of crytpo are investors/speculators.

[BlueKelah]

Yes. Does seems like end of the road for most alt coins. BTC and ETH will likely survive (too much vested interest by institutions and people with strong financial backing).

Let's hope that the contagion will be contained within the crypto market, and not spread to other financial systems.

Personal price target (assuming perfect bell-curve):
BTC: US~$10k
Eth: <$1k

(no positions, slight exposure through Square and Tesla)

I reckon "mainstream" coins like BTC will survive based on the Lindy effect. It has been around for close to a decade and suffered a few crashes on its own (and survived). So there is some sort of anti fragility built into its system.

While I have no faith in BTC as an asset, but I do have faith that humans will continue to use BTC as the vehicle to gamble and try to get rich.

that is a foolish projection most BTC pushers use to push the coin. BTC has not survived through any big financial crisis yet. Only really started since post GFC. BTC has failed as having any utility or as a currency. failed now as a store of value. will it fail the test of time? very likely. Ether on the other hand is widely used in gaming community to trade in game items and so called NFTs. so it will continue to enjoy a utility in that space. 

The thing is with a crash in prices, big companies will no longer be attracted to do mining for the cryptos and so without them the crypto networks will slow down and likely revert back to people mining with PCs at home.

But yeah Tulip mania for now seems to be over for cryptos, some dotcoms survive like amazon and google , etc.. as they all had utility and widespread actual daily use.  For cryptos they tried to replace currency, tried to replace gold, tried to replace banking system etc.. in the end without speculative aspect, even DEFI is quite useless as most governments need to regulate which is the antithesis of DEFI. 

Probably orth a punt at lows if FED decides to come back in and turn on the printing taps, but with with sky high persistent inflation coming up  and recession looming, its gonna be risk off for a while yet.