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Crypto crash: almost $1 trillion wiped off markets as Bitcoin hits lowest level since 2020:
It's been a nightmare week for cryptocurrency holders as the market crashes and Bitcoin hits its lowest price since December 2020. Ethereum, BNB, XRP, and many other digital coins have also fallen to their lowest levels in a long time. The crisis came after stablecoin Terra, designed to trade 1:1 with the US dollar, collapsed.
TerraUSD (UST), the 11th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is an algorithmic stablecoin that uses a set of smart contracts to ensure its value stays as close to $1 as possible. But after hovering at around $1 for about a year, it crashed to 29 cents yesterday, plunging its market cap from more than $45 billion to less than $5 billion. It has since rallied to 62 cents, but that's still far from $1.
Terra's support coin, Luna, has also plummeted in dramatic style, going from $86 at the start of the week to its current price of 20 cents. Terra is designed so traders can exchange 1 UST for $1 worth of Luna, no matter the price of UST
[...] Do Kwon, co-founder of Terra developer Terraform Labs, tweeted: "I understand the last 72 hours have been extremely tough on all of you - know that I am resolved to work with every one of you to weather this crisis, and we will build our way out of this."
Terra's collapse has impacted many cryptocurrencies, the most notable being the biggest one of all: Bitcoin. At the time of writing, BTC is at $27,236, its lowest value since before the crypto boom at the end of 2020. Bitcoin has now lost nearly two-thirds of its value since peaking at $69,000 in November 2021.
[...] The good news for non-crypto-owning gamers is that the freefall will doubtlessly make mining less profitable, and should push graphics card prices even closer to MSRP.
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Sunday May 15 2022, @01:46PM (7 children)
A fool and his money are soon parted [urbandictionary.com].
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 15 2022, @03:37PM (6 children)
That wasn't money.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:11PM (2 children)
I think GP is referring to the people parting with large amounts of dollars/euros/yen to get something that's worth less than a piece of paper.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:26PM (1 child)
Fiat currency is debt, not money.
Money doesn't come with interest attached.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @11:44AM
Back to Economics 101 with you?
Money, or more commonly called Cash == Asset, which most people earn as a thing called Income.
Debt is not cash. You can get cash in exchange for debt. And imagine, that is even true for governments. The only possible area where you are correct, is if you talk about deposit accounts for a bank. A deposit account is considered a liability for the institution since it has to pay back when you withdraw your asset. But that is stretching it.
As for interest, that has little to do with money (ie. CURRENCY) itself. It has mostly to do with risk and ability to get liquidity now and not later. But anyway, this is probably over your head at this point since I'm probably talking to the echo chamber person believing things about "fiat currency".
Anyway, the purpose of FIAT CURRENCY is to facilitate TRADE. The supply of this money is regulated to reflect the state of the economy. It is not the purpose of FIAT CURRENCY to be a STORE OF VALUE over long periods of time. And as we see now, BTC and related are definitely not either ;)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @05:50PM (2 children)
Ancient German saying: Nur ungern nimmt der Handelsmann statt barer Münze Scheiße an.
(Score: 2) by number11 on Monday May 16 2022, @12:11AM (1 child)
Which Google translates as:
"The tradesman is reluctant to accept shit instead of cash."
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday May 16 2022, @02:36PM
Seems reasonable. Then again, if you're needing horse manure. You're going to be making a deal.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Touché) by Thexalon on Sunday May 15 2022, @02:18PM (19 children)
"This electronic token thingy that we just made up is valuable, and will get a lot more valuable without you having to lift a finger, we the people selling it really really promise!"
I mean, these things have less in terms of financial fundamentals or ownership over real-world assets than mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps, and those of us with a memory of at least 14 years know how those turned out.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @03:40PM (12 children)
If you didn't notice, most tech stocks are down by 50% too. Even with amazing earnings and guidance, AMD is still near 50% of its peak.
Many stocks are down closer to 80%.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:09PM (10 children)
You plainly don't understand what I mean by "financial fundamentals". Maybe I wasn't clear about that, but here's what I'm getting at: How does the financial asset reflect ownership rights over a thing you could do something with?
For example, in real estate, the fundamentals are that there's a patch of land, and if you own that thing you have a bunch of things you're allowed to do on that land and in any buildings that might be on it that you can't legally do if you don't own it and don't have the owner's permission to do the thing.
In the case of tech company stocks, the fundamentals are:
- Their physical assets: Any offices they own rather than rent, workstations, servers, data centers, factories, etc.
- Stuff that they like to call "intellectual property": Copyrighted code, designs and inventions that are still under patent, trade secrets, branding and trademarks, etc.
- Ongoing sales contracts where some customer already promised to pay $X in return for service Y.
So, in the event that a tech company goes completely belly-up, and nobody wants to buy them out, they'll sell off all of that stuff to get some cash to pay for, in approximate order:
- Employee payroll not yet paid out.
- Legal judgment creditors
- Contracted creditors
- Bond-holders and bank loans
- Stockholders, who are admittedly the last to get a bite of the apple, but they can get a bite depending on the circumstances.
And that's a big part of why the stocks of companies with valuable assets tend to be valued higher, because all that stuff can be used to reduce the risk.
With crypto, though, there is nothing to sell off: The calculations that went into mining a coin aren't something that can be used by anyone else for any particular purpose. And that's an important difference. You don't even get a pretty flower out of it!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @06:01PM (3 children)
Don't tell that to the people that did sell off and caused this little "crash". Now they speculate where the bottom is and will buy back. Sounds like any other day in the stock market
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 15 2022, @11:53PM (2 children)
But will they be buying crypto or dead cats armed with razor blades?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @12:18AM (1 child)
If they make a profit, who cares?
(Score: 0, Redundant) by khallow on Monday May 16 2022, @01:44AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @11:58PM (5 children)
"With crypto, though ..."
You can almost say the same thing about fiat currency ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @06:47AM (3 children)
You can say anything about anything. With fiat currency, the value is driven by the fact it's legal tender in some nation. Want a visa to Fooland? You have to pay for it in Foobucks. Want to run a business there? All the licensing requirements and taxes are in Foobucks. Nations use various legal frameworks and yes, coercion to drive a requirement to buy their currencies. You need USD because the USA says so. What entity exists that has a monopoly over something (such as land, and the resources it contains) and insists that you pay with crypto?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @12:14PM
Well, there is El Salvador ... but then they also have USD and they don't make either.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-12/el-salvador-s-bitcoin-losses-are-as-big-as-its-next-bond-payment [bloomberg.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @01:39PM (1 child)
"With fiat currency, the value is driven by the fact it's legal tender"
You mean like Venezuela
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @03:16PM
And? Pointing out that fiat currency can go the way of Bitcoin is not a win.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday May 17 2022, @10:52PM
No, you cannot even remotely say this. Fiat currency may not be backed by gold, but there are plenty of government assets (land being only a very small part of it) that can be used to support owners in the event of a problem.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by captain normal on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:11PM
From what I see, way too many tech stocks are vapor-ware also. Look at how many companies with billion dollar stock market value have made little or no profit for years now.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Sunday May 15 2022, @07:06PM (4 children)
"This printed paper token we made up is valuable, and will remain so. We the government selling it really, really promise!"
Currency is by it's very nature a social construct with no inherent value. That's the entire *point* of currency - if it has any real value it loses most of its value as a medium of trade. Sometimes in the past it was based on a rare but useless substance like gold - either directly or via government promise, but it's still ultimately nothing but a worthless token that people agree has a poorly defined value determined entirely by what real-value goods people agree it's worth that day.
Generally speaking that's determined by the value of goods and services traded for those tokens, divided by the number of tokens in circulation. And that means it can change on a dime in response to unfolding circumstances. Start making a lot more tokens, and the value of all of them plummets. Lots of people decide they don't trust your tokens and trade using someone else's instead? The value plummets. (a legitimate concern for the US, since most US dollars are circulated by foreign institutions completely outside direct US influence)
Some people like to assign great significance to the government's requiring taxes be paid with a specific token, or guaranteeing it as valid tender for all debts. And that definitely helps a new currency get established, but ultimately is largely irrelevant to its value once established. Taxes are then a tiny portion of the "trade" conducted in those tokens, and we've seen in the past that if then token's value plummets, creditors will go to great lengths to avoid being available for any repayment of debts counted in those tokens until they regain their value.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @10:20PM (3 children)
》Taxes are then a tiny portion of the "trade" conducted in those tokens,
The Democrats are working to fix that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @10:46PM (2 children)
I didn't know you 1-percenters hang out here.
Just imagine: they might want you to actually pay SOME tax! I know, crazy idea, blast from the past.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @01:53AM (1 child)
Riiight.
Because nobody outside the top 1% of earners could possibly look at the amazing, sterling, magnificent, glorious, stupendous work that the democrats have done with the economy, the national budget and think:
"Holy axle grease, Batman, these chucklefucks have found entire new pooches to screw!"
Oh noes! Narrative derailed! Quick, something-something-fascist-nazi! Say it! Say it now! Or are we back to republican/deplorable/voting-against-own-interests crap?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @03:22PM
When did you stop??? Maybe if you weren't busy trying to repeal civil rights and other freedoms then you wouldn't be called deplorable. Maybe if you stopped supporting politicians that tax the poor for hand-outs to the rich then you wouldn't be voting against your own interests. What burns you up is you know it is true, you're not stupid, but you believe the lies from Fox and other rightwing pundits spreading Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. They have you by the balls, well, amygdala!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @11:35PM
The credit default swaps were incredibly valuable when the CDO's they were insuring found themselves in need of insurance. As for mortgage backed securities, they do just fine, relative to their credit rating, under normal conditions. The issue was sub-prime mortgages being sold as AAA rated. It was rampant fraud that caused 2008, not securitized debt or swaps.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Sunday May 15 2022, @03:01PM (10 children)
Bitcoin never had any worth to lose - rather, it had perceived value. Those are not the same thing.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @03:09PM
That's how most of the "richest people in the world" worth numbers are calculated. It is telling that when Musk, "the richest man in the world", proposed to buy Twitter, he had to "secure funding" to come up with the money, meaning that he didn't have it. Calculating net worth based upon current stock value is misleading, but it does allow one to build a ranked list, which I suppose is the only reason for doing it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 15 2022, @03:40PM (8 children)
The collective hallucination of "value" in BTC has fallen significantly, in relationship to the collective hallucination of "value" in government backed fiat currencies.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:06PM (1 child)
yes yes, but the sleepy street shop vender will sell you a bar of soap even during a power outage.
not sure what that extra fan the bitcoin miner ran around to acquire (curiously enough from the same sleepy street shop vendor) will accomplish in the same situation.
i guess the extra markup the sleepy head charged when seeing the nervous and sweety miner makes him a good business man?
and now for some coin-cup-noodles ... w/ hot water. sunshine, silicon, battery, induction all for the low low price of a 1/100 of a miner-rig. "winvestment" for the ...win!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @02:31AM
Not around here. The power goes out and they all stop until it comes back up. If it's a small shop and you have the exact change (or say "keep the change") the owner might sell you something for cash. Not the rest of the staff though, too much chance of being accused of pocketing the cash.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:24PM (5 children)
Government-backed currencies do have a few very specific aspects to them that attempted-currencies without government backing lack, at least within that government's jurisdiction:
1. If you decide that they don't have value, said government can send people with guns to explain that "yes, they're actually valuable, you can argue over how much they're worth but they're worth something and whoever is trying to settle a debt is genuinely doing so if they offer these pieces of paper / hunks of metal".
2. You have to come up with some amount of government-backed currency to pay taxes and fees to the government. So even if you live your life entirely via bartering or some alternative currency, at some point you'll need to convert some stuff to that government-backed currency. And if you don't, the government can send people with guns to make that conversion happen for you.
3. The more oppressive governments can mandate that all transactions use their currency, and can send people with guns to explain things if you try to do something else.
Bitcoin doesn't have the fallback to "people with guns" that fiat currencies have, precisely because government is an organized attempt at maintaining a monopoly on socially-legitimate violence.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @06:11PM (2 children)
yes yes. lowest form of governance.
i agree overall but it just ocured to me that if gun makers accept crypto and gun users want crypto and you can MAKE crypto ... well shit, us-of-a version 2.0(*)
(*) indicates a doubling of required energy for the you-crypto-boss-state to function, not a improvement.
on a more srsly note: modern wars are fought with industrial made machines which belong to a few 1%ers. because if this, modern wars are fought for jobs ... no just kidding ... are fought to keep ownership of them machines and the means to run/fuel them. luckily greed prevails and acctual destruction of industrial output (guns! guns! guns!) and minions is a last resort. lots of propaganda and mind control of adversaries minions tho ... the ownZ are subject to "gleichschaltung".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @12:07PM (1 child)
Not really.
Modern wars are fought for similar reasons like they used to be in the past, but just less often as it was realized that open trade is superior to wars over trade. Most of the wars we have today are over power, politics, religion and, of course, the hatred of your neighbours (aka, bigotry). There are also wars because the "great leader" of your area/country/whatever is disillusioned and wants a "legacy". Wars are no longer fought over economic interests because those are always a loser for both sides. So instead of real wars, there are economic wars and skirmishes -- at least with this you keep your infrastructure!
The more things change, the more things stay the same, and this applies to wars ;) Except for economic reasons -- Adam Smith had some insight in that and most of the world has bought his ideas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @02:37AM
There are two sides to a war. Those wielding weapons and those selling them. The side wielding weapons always loses, the side selling weapons always wins.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 15 2022, @07:48PM (1 child)
Agreed, most fiat currencies are "backed by the full faith and credit" (aka legal systems, police and military) of the issuing governments.
I have been openly saying Bitcoin and all proof of work cryptocurrencies need to die for 10+ years now. This would also include all ICO cryptocurrencies with naught but hot air backing them.
That's not to say that the technology itself is worthless as a medium of exchange or store of value. The potential for cryptographic signatures to form a medium of exchange of fungible debt has been waiting for social adoption since PGP and the "web of trust" concepts were realized 20+ years ago.
http://assignonward.com [assignonward.com]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @08:16PM
all go rhythem is the new sensor ship.
"currency" is the best invention of the piliging and slaughtering hord retiring ...
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:12PM (4 children)
The article from May 12th is too old for a fast developing situation as the ust collapse.
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Sunday May 15 2022, @05:27PM
I'm still looking for your more recent submission. But, when we find it, we will consider using it.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Sunday May 15 2022, @11:31PM (2 children)
Actually, the parent is correct...
https://decrypt.co/100292/bitcoin-ethereum-mount-recovery-crypto-markets-rebound-2 [decrypt.co]
There was a little recovery on Friday after the original article in the title was written on Thursday.
That being said, It is still far from its peak 6 months ago and still down for the week (last week)
Of course as with anything in the stock market, tomorrow is a new day... Which way it will go, I won't know until after it happens.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @08:36AM (1 child)
It's not much of a currency if it's that unstable in value. When I want to sell a pizza I want to have a good idea on whether I'm making money or not. If the "currency" I use fluctuates a lot I might have to price it a lot higher to try to ensure I make money.
Also if the transaction costs are significant when compared to the cost of my pizza then I'd have to add that to the costs as well.
Bitcoin is not suitable as a modern currency because it's expensive to produce. It's like going back to the primitive and stupid days of using gold. Except Bitcoin is even worse than gold. Gold at least is a very useful material for many purposes.
Go work out how much energy would be wasted if the world economy uses trillions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Monday May 16 2022, @03:55PM
I agree that crypto-finance is nothing tangible; but imagined.
It is nothing but a ponzi scheme goin awry, and destroying the power grid and environment as a horrible side effect.
But, my point is that it is traded on the stock market, so every day its perceived value is determined on Wall St, regardless of any actual assets.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:48PM (1 child)
There is absolutely nothing actually tying the value of tether to the dollar. We know it. They know it. We know they know and they know... Anyway, I bet they are wide open for a bit of coordinated mayhem. It shouldn't be too difficult to move considering the main thing holding it up are loans to "affilliated" companies.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 16 2022, @08:28AM
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/15735/tether-quietly-updates-its-collateral-breakdown-which-includes-cash-equivalents-and-third-party-loans
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday May 15 2022, @05:16PM (2 children)
If there were ever a time and a place for the "Nelson says Ha-Ha!" gif this is it.
...for extra irony, mint it as an NFT :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @10:35PM (1 child)
I remember you were malingering for quite a while, although you took your employer for green dollars, not internet fun bucks.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 16 2022, @05:01AM
Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by CheesyMoo on Sunday May 15 2022, @06:04PM (1 child)
This remind's me of the Ty Beanie Baby collection craze in the 90s.
They were a hot commodity targeted at kids with the promise to the parents that these collectables would only appreciate in value over the years.
But I don't think drug dealers or hitmen accept Beanie Babies as payment...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @08:19PM
maybe the tide changes when you're in prison ... or was it (un)lucky strike?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @12:57AM
Until those assets are in some sense realised, it's all funny money.
Otherwise every dip in the bitdogetherium complex turns into a tax dodge.
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Monday May 16 2022, @05:18PM (1 child)
Oh, that's really sad..
I hope it gets worse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @02:41PM
Think that's sad? Check out TrumpCoin(tm).