Well, Bitcoin is on the move – who’s surprised?
Hilariously, everyone’s favorite “currency” that is definitely not a currency has managed to rally above $8,700:
As usual, there is no readily discernible catalyst for this, which pretty much by definition means it’s pure, unadulterated speculation.
“Central banks are working on this issue of crypto currencies very intensively,“ the SNB’s Thomas Jordan told an event in Basel on Thursday, before adding that in his view, people should “look at them more as an investment than a currency.” And he should know, because after all, he prints actual currency.
The fresh round of gains comes after a week that saw a $31 million theft at Tether and amid further evidence that this craze is getting more out of control literally by the day. As we detailed on Friday, Swissquote Bank SA is now launching an actively managed Bitcoin certificate that relies on algos to move in and out of the digital currency based on “technical signals” derived from social media. Meanwhile, the new secret recipe for success in the stock market is simply to “add blockchain” and watch the speculators pile in. Here’s a good example:
One thing I’ve mentioned previously in response to comments here at HR is there’s something perverse about claiming Bitcoin is a substitute for fiat money but then turning around and immediately quoting Bitcoin prices in the same fiat currency that you’re maligning. Rangold’s Mark Bristow expressed similar incredulity with what is a glaring inconsistency in rhetoric from the crypto crowd during an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.
“At the end of the day, I’ve heard no one ever say they have two bitcoins. They say they have 7,000 euros worth of bitcoins. Or I’ve got $5,000 worth of bitcoins, or I’ve suddenly made $2,000 because the bitcoin has gone up,” Bristow said, somewhat dryly.
“The largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, added about 100,000 accounts between Wednesday and Friday – just around Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday – to a total of 13.1 million,” CNBC notes on Saturday.
To let CNBC contributor Brian Kelly tell it, Bitcoin was all anyone was talking about as they gorged themselves on turkey. “Anecdotally, everyone I have talked to in the cryptocurrency community has said that Thanksgiving table discussion was all about bitcoin, and that inspired many family members to buy bitcoin,” Kelly muses. “I suspect that pattern was repeated across tables everywhere.”
Yes, Kelly “suspects” that everyone was talking about Bitcoin on Thanksgiving. That is either a completely ridiculous thing to say or it’s true. In either case it’s absurd.
And speaking of absurd, here’s a “subtle” reminder for you:
bitcoin is a bubble about as much as the internet in 1992 was a bubble. its profoundly ignorant to say the internet is a bubble, just like its profoundly ignorant to say bitcoin is a bubble.
it’s a bubble
LOL
and what frustrates people about me and Bitcoin is that I have absolutely no shame when it comes to being wrong.
there’s this tendency for people to say: “oh Heisenberg, but what if you’re wrong? how stupid will you feel?”
and it’s like: “not stupid at all. i’m wrong all the time. that’s what life is, being wrong and learning from it.”
Yes all your articles seem to be wrong. Eventually the crash WILL come and you will be right.
Heisy, all anyone that’s in “the crypto community” was talking about over thanksgiving dinner was Bitcoin? Ha, what does that even mean? I own a Bitcoin; am I in the crypto community? I’m down in Atlanta, spending time with “normal folk,” and I can guaran-damn-tee you that I didn’t bring up Bitcoin. Not once. Know why? I would end up lecturing for thirty minutes to people with glazed over eyes who wouldn’t be any wiser after I was done. I may be a fool who owns Bitcoin, but I try not to waste my time! Point is, this article is one big over-exaggeration where the only concrete number provided was 13.1 million accounts, which is less than 5% of the US population. We’re still early and nothing has bee. Achieved but massive speculation, but that doesn’t make Bitcoin a bad idea or a fraud.
13.1 million accounts on coinbase alone, bitcoin float is 16.7 million out of a pre-set total of 21 million. Seems to me the perceived scarcity is going to begin to hit critical mass soon enough. Reminds me of the beanie baby toy craze in the 90s… eventually people realized they were paying up to 4 figures for a sack of beans, then a few months later they were sitting on shelves for a retail value of $3.
Even if you consider cryptocurrency to be the real deal, there are simply too many alternatives that take up a lot less of your truly fungible dollars and offer arguably better potential reward
Beanie Babies…..LOL. I know a person who has maybe 100 of them in a box in the attic — waiting for the “right amount” to sell them and the longer it takes, the better the money will be….LOL. Meanwhile the moths have almost spilled the beans.
Beanie babies, pogs, pet rocks, tomagotchi, pokemon cards… and bitcoin. No one knows why they want(ed) them, but theyll just buy them anyways. This is a sociological craze, my bartender friend asked me the other day how much she should “invest” in bitcoin. This is the same person who asked me what macroeconomics was. This thing is going down like a led zeppelin. I dont care if its the future, the idea will persevere but the actual bitcoin itself is a replaceable and arguably archaic form of that idea.
everything has a value – the trick is knowing when
Also, i’d say things look pretty frothy when a guy who’s been hit repeatedly on the head for a living the past twenty years is one of the largest public endorsers — http://bitcoinist.com/floyd-mayweather-fights-bitcoins-corner/
People also said Amazon stock was a bubble at $100+ in 1999. Today is it $1100+. Bitcoin today is like Amazon in 1999 – sure the price might be a bit frothy today but in 10 years time it will likely be $100,000 a coin at least.