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Bitcoin The Almighty Buck

Ranks of Crypto Users Swelled in 2018 Even as Bitcoin Tumbled (bloomberg.com) 49

Posted by msmash from the never-gonna-give-you-up dept.
It turns out that cryptocurrency enthusiasts were committed well beyond the HODL rallying call that urged them to hold on during this year's digital-asset market collapse. From a report: The number of verified users of cryptocurrencies almost doubled in the first three quarters of the year even as the market bellwether Bitcoin tumbled almost 80 percent, according to a study from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Users climbed from 18 million to 35 million this year. The figures may provide a silver lining. If user numbers continue to increase even in a deep market downturn, that could signal that an eventual recovery could be coming -- a crucial finding at a time when some critics predict that the value of cryptocurrencies will go down to zero.
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Ranks of Crypto Users Swelled in 2018 Even as Bitcoin Tumbled More

Ranks of Crypto Users Swelled in 2018 Even as Bitcoin Tumbled

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  • Bitcoin will always have a base (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @02:15PM (#57798936)

    Bitcoin especially, will always have a base of users - because there is no alternative that offers the same features (well other than other digital currencies), not even cash (and cash is in theory less universal, though the dollar comes closest to working everywhere).

    Sometimes I wonder if anti-Bitcoin propaganda and manipulation may not be some kind of U.S. intervention, to keep the value of the dollar propped up since it's used around most of the world as a supported currency.

    • Bitcoin especially, will always have a base of users - because there is no alternative that offers the same features (well other than other digital currencies), not even cash (and cash is in theory less universal, though the dollar comes closest to working everywhere).

      Sometimes I wonder if anti-Bitcoin propaganda and manipulation may not be some kind of U.S. intervention, to keep the value of the dollar propped up since it's used around most of the world as a supported currency.

      Indeed, a lot of people were calling it a tulip investment and that always seemed wrong. Yeah, the bottom fell out of the market but it didn't totally collapse. Bitcoin is still stronger than it was a year ago. Too late for the get rich quick schemers, but it still holds some value.

      Never lived up to the tulip predictions that some on here espoused.

    • Sometimes I wonder if anti-Bitcoin propaganda and manipulation may not be some kind of U.S. intervention, to keep the value of the dollar propped up since it's used around most of the world as a supported currency.

      Money is power and sovereignty comes first to the people who make it.

  • Sure, millions of GPU miners, mining alt-coins and selling them for bitcoins, and the wiser ones then exchanging the bitcoins for their local fiat currency. Don't think of the handful of "enthusiasts" who built mining rigs. Think of many with a decent GPU in their PC who decided to let it mine when they were not otherwise using their PC. These people generated much bitcoin "usage". It was profitable until very recently and these people are bloating the cited stats.
  • This says the number of "users" increased. Does this mean that the number of people holding BTC has gone up?

    If so all that means is that rather than having speculators who buy on a rising market and then sell at a higher price to realise their gain (in proper money), those who were left holding the baby, as it were, have decided not to sell up and take a loss. Presumably they are hoping that at some point there will be an upturn and their loss might even turn into a profit.

    But that pattern of behaviour

    • It also includes holders for whom the transaction costs of unloading it (including the value of their time) exceed the current value of their BTC.

    • One user might not equal one human being. One human being might actually hold 1000 accounts. With all the hacking and stealing going on in the bitcoin community, it would be smart not to have all your holdings in one wallet. If I were inclined to hold bitcoin, I would spread out the risk as much as I could.

  • I think a lot of people feel that our economy has peaked, and that there is a downturn shortly down the road. (Which is backed up with the Interest rate inversion) During this time, people do rather erratic things, such as investing in a popping bubble thinking it had dropped as far as it went. Also with general fear and uncertainty they probably think Crypto Currency is a way to diversify their newly acquired wealth.

  • I wonder what is defined as a "user". Does it mean the holder of the account? I don't actually think it means USING the bitcoins to pay for something.

  • "Crypto" is short for cryptography, end of story. It is already abbreviated in "cryptocurrency". Also, cryptography is mostly an honorable business, while cryptocurrencies are mostly scam.

  • The number of users increased by a factor of 2, the number of cryptocurrencies increased by a factor of 20, and most of the "users" of cryptocurrencies use more than just 1, therefore they are all at least double-counted and they are fewer in number per cryptocurrency.

    Obviously paid-for crypto-currency "articles" like this one have been coming at us all week; someone is paying a lot of money to temporarily raise the bids so that they can offload at a smaller loss than if they sold now.

  • A little relaxation of the bullish trend; combined with introduction of futures and
    probably traditional financial companies shorting the hell out of BTC.

    What you need is statistics from major exchanges/BTC financial companies on...
    quantities of other peoples' BTC being used to make loans for entities shorting BTC.

    And how much "fake" / "paper" BTC is floating around that was created by short-sellers?

    (e.g. Bitcoins where someone has deposited, and the exchange loaned them out to Short Sell, then
    th

  • It may be more useful as a currency when the price is bumping around dollars mark - so still a way to fall!
  • If cryptocurrency behaved like goods, we would have an increased demand while supply remain flat by design. That should raise prices.

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