{"id":4223,"date":"2018-01-16T23:48:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T23:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=4223"},"modified":"2018-01-17T12:26:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T12:26:02","slug":"tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/16\/tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Tis just a seasonal dip! Watching the Bitcoin fire from a safe distance \u2014 what just happened"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/16\/tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened\/coindesk-bitcoin-price-2018-01-16-22-42-07\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4224\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4224\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/coindesk-bitcoin-price-2018-01-16-22-42-07.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"888\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/coindesk-bitcoin-price-2018-01-16-22-42-07.png 888w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/coindesk-bitcoin-price-2018-01-16-22-42-07-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/coindesk-bitcoin-price-2018-01-16-22-42-07-768x436.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 888px) 100vw, 888px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The price started collapsing this morning. I&#8217;m not going to be so foolish as to <i>call it<\/i>, but looking at the reactions from horrified December buyers of Bitcoin, I am saying <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/04\/why-you-cant-cash-out-pt-3-bitcoin-is-not-a-ponzi-scheme-it-just-works-like-one\/\">&#8220;I told you so&#8221;<\/a> \u2014 the only actual money people will get out is actual money that other people put in. And the exits are <i>congested<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>This crash didn&#8217;t just happen \u2014 it appears to have been provoked by a pile of fake sell walls, such as a large spoof order at $12,000 that disappeared as soon as the price approached it, and another at $11,000. If this isn&#8217;t our friend <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/09\/25\/news-single-source-of-most-ethereum-transactions-exchange-execs-cant-leave-china-tim-swanson-spoofy-at-gdax\/\">&#8220;Spoofy&#8221;<\/a>, it s a close relative.<\/p>\n<p>(This sort of glaring manipulation is <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/12\/17\/why-you-cant-cash-out-pt-1-why-bitcoins-price-is-largely-fictional\/\">ridiculously illegal<\/a> in real securities trading \u2014 but welcome to Bitcoin.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitfinexed\/status\/953380378844258304<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The cryptocurrency &#8220;market cap&#8221; showed itself as complete illusion, a bad and useless marketing number that you should never pay any attention to. <i>What happened to all that value?<\/i> The answer is: it never existed.<\/p>\n<p>(That altcoin bloodbath is not quite as bad as it looks. Altcoins tend to track the price of Bitcoin, rather than the US dollar, because almost all of them can only be traded for other cryptos \u2014 which is why <a href=\"http:\/\/coinmarketcap.com\/\">CoinMarketCap<\/a> charts altcoin prices against BTC as well as USD. But this is why there&#8217;s not really such a thing as a &#8220;diversified portfolio&#8221; of cryptos.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/16\/tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened\/altcoins-all-in-the-red\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4238\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4238\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/altcoins-all-in-the-red.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/altcoins-all-in-the-red.jpg 502w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/altcoins-all-in-the-red-278x300.jpg 278w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/16\/tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened\/market-cap-2016-01-18\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4237\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4237\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/market-cap-2016-01-18.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"587\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/market-cap-2016-01-18.png 587w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/market-cap-2016-01-18-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/price\/\">CoinDesk price chart page<\/a> had trouble coping:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CoinDesk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@coindesk<\/a> price chart page is not doing so well <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/arI38PbqHE\">pic.twitter.com\/arI38PbqHE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/953396887624867840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The day of the 2013 crash, it was Reddit \/r\/bitcoin that pinned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/SubredditDrama\/comments\/1t5xy9\/bitcoin_lost_over_50_of_its_value_today_and_the\/\">a link to a suicide hotline<\/a> to the top of the forum (per <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/table-of-contents\/\">chapter 4<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\">the book<\/a>). This time, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CryptoCurrency\/\">\/r\/cryptocurrency<\/a>. They didn&#8217;t actually pin it to the top, but it <i>was<\/i> the top unpinned post:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/16\/tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened\/r-cryptocurrency-suicide-hotline-2018-01-16-2205\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4225\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4225\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/r-cryptocurrency-suicide-hotline-2018-01-16-2205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"80%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/r-cryptocurrency-suicide-hotline-2018-01-16-2205.jpg 713w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/r-cryptocurrency-suicide-hotline-2018-01-16-2205-300x149.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Around 22:30 UTC, another 100 million <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/09\/16\/china-tethers-and-whats-happened-to-the-bitcoin-price-in-the-past-few-days\/\">Tethers<\/a> showed up, after 150 million yesterday \u2014 every single one no doubt backed by a genuine US dollar in a bank account:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitfinexed\/status\/953393873983803404<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The tethers pushed the CoinDesk average price back <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitfinexed\/status\/953398351889944576\">over $11,000.<\/a> So I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;ll all be fine by tomorrow!<\/p>\n<p>(Remember that <a>the &#8220;price&#8221; is a made-up marketing number<\/a> \u2014 &#8220;$11,096.68&#8221; means &#8220;$11,000 plus or minus $1,000 or so.&#8221; The low on Binance was $9,035.00, for example. Though that was actually Tethers, not real dollars.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/16\/tis-just-a-seasonal-dip-watching-the-bitcoin-fire-from-a-safe-distance-what-just-happened\/bitfinexed-2018-01-16-2257\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4242\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4242\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/bitfinexed-2018-01-16-2257.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"586\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/bitfinexed-2018-01-16-2257.png 586w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/bitfinexed-2018-01-16-2257-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Right now I&#8217;m listening to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/cryptoworldnews\">CryptoWorldNews<\/a> on Twitch, which has its greatest listener numbers of all time, helped by @ButtCoin <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/953395422311174144\">linking them.<\/a> It&#8217;s the financial equivalent of listening to very detailed and erudite pseudoscientists, talking about how to correctly align your chakras with your body thetans while Mercury is in retrograde. &#8220;This is a bloodbath today &#8230; and also the best time to buy!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">seriously my fellow buttcoiners, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pP1Lg3L1yp\">https:\/\/t.co\/pP1Lg3L1yp<\/a> is the Comedy Gold channel. Hilarity to listen to, and the troll box at the side is even better. Of course these bozos are telling everyone to BUY and HODL<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/953395422311174144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">hello bank how do I short btc<\/p>\n<p> also can you explain what short means<\/p>\n<p> no i don&#39;t have any money but hear me out this is a sure thing<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/953389211264208897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sadly, it appears that Kodak&#39;s core business skill was entering new markets late.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Peter Atwater (@Peter_Atwater) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Peter_Atwater\/status\/953387602610094080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The price of Bitcoin started collapsing this morning. I\u2019m not going to be so foolish as to call it, but I am saying \u201cI told you so\u201d \u2014 the only actual money people will get out is actual money that other people put in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[401,21,84,98,400,108,39],"class_list":["post-4223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-r-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitfinexed","tag-coindesk","tag-cryptoworldnews","tag-spoofy","tag-tether"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4223"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4269,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions\/4269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}