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An article on Ars Technica notes the continuing slide downward of Bitcoin prices (down below $9,000 per coin from a December peak of $19,500). It also notes some recent news about Facebook ads and crypto, SEC Action against a different cryptocurrency project, and rumors about a still different coin's possibility of insolvency.
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about Tether, a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the United States dollar. Tethers are supposed to be redeemable for dollars at any time, but in recent months Tether has struggled to gain access to the conventional banking system and has failed to produce a financial audit demonstrating its solvency.
I'm not sure if the article is connecting unconnected stories of problems or if the theme of trouble in crypto-land generally is valid. But this quote got me to thinking how much the state of cryptocurrency may be like the Free Banking Era in the United States in the 1800s and the Wildcat Banking that signaled its demise. We discuss cryptocurrency a lot on Soylent, but are the troubles of various operators all linked or is it unrelated coincidence?
[Ed. Note: The linked story at Ars Technica was updated to report that the price of one BitCoin dropped below $7000. As of this writing, coinbase reports the price dropped to about $6400 (Javascript required). Note this price is still $5500 ahead of where it was this time last year when it had just inched above $1000.]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:35AM (1 child)
Weren't derivatives the source of wild swings ever since the Great Depression?
Also, was it a coincidence that the Bitcoin course went wild right after Bitcoin futures were allowed on Wall Street?
Anyway, currently we don't have a wild swing, but a very steady downwards trend since roughly the beginning of the year. Which isn't the first time BTW, it also happened in the second half of 2014 (in the first half of 2014 it also was going down, but not as steadyly). You can explore it here; [coinmarketcap.com] unfortunately I couldn't find a way to link to specific date range selections, so you'll have to set the date ranges yourself.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 06 2018, @09:27AM
Quite the opposite, the way I look at it - it had started going parabolic (log curve has +ve 2nd derivative) before futures appeared. The futures did appear to temper the growth. I presume that was because some were now betting against it.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves