Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Bitcoin The Almighty Buck

Cryptocurrencies Tumble As Global Investors Reduce Risk (coindesk.com) 82

New submitter NoMoreDupes shares a report from CoinDesk: The crypto market was in a sea of red on Friday as bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, tumbled more than 10% over the past 24 hours. It appears that global investors have entered the year with a reduced appetite for risk, and so the correlations between speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies and equities have increased, which results in widespread losses. Bitcoin is down roughly 40% from its all-time high of almost $69,000, while the S&P 500 is down about 7% from its peak, compared with a 10% drawdown in the Nasdaq 100 Index.

Alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) led the way lower on Friday given their higher risk profile relative to bitcoin. Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was down about 13% over the past 24 hours, compared with a 14% drop in AVAX and a 16% drop in FTM over the same period. Despite the losses, some analysts still foresee a short-term bounce. "We expect BTC to find a bid around the $35K mark, close to 50% from the top. In the short term, we can bounce to challenge the $45K-$50K zone, but the overall outlook remains bearish as liquidity remains tight," Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange, a crypto derivatives trading platform, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Cryptocurrencies Tumble As Global Investors Reduce Risk

Comments Filter:
  • by klipclop ( 6724090 ) on Friday January 21, 2022 @10:55PM (#62196251)
    Crypto obviously isn't going to zero, right? Just the latest drop to prepare for the next rocket for BTC $1,000,000!
    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @01:16AM (#62196421)
      It's not going to zero so long as governments ignore it's use for money laundering. If (when?) that happens the bottom drops out, the speculators will cash out to Greater Fools and it goes away.

      I do question if our civilization is functional enough to do something as basic as regulate money laundering though. And if we're not it'll continue until, well, we collapse.
      • I do question if our civilization is functional enough to do something as basic as regulate money laundering though. And if we're not it'll continue until, well, we collapse.

        You have strange requirements for what makes for a functioning civilization.

      • And if we're not it'll continue until, well, we collapse. So money laundering is the cause of all ills? I thought it was taxation. Or is it tax avoidance? Tax avoidance is the purpose of money laundering so we've come full circle. My morals stand conflicted.

        • Tax avoidance is the purpose of money laundering so we've come full circle.

          Money laundering is used to hide the source of income and make illegitimate money look like "normal" income... and a big part of that usually involves paying taxes. If you're trying to hide the fact that you even have the money, then there's rarely any point in laundering it at all.

      • by Z00L00K ( 682162 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @01:32AM (#62196453) Homepage Journal

        More and more banks are now preventing you from trading with cryptocurrency due to the money laundering and the ransomware issues, so I think that what we see now is that cryptocurrency is getting isolated from other currencies more and more and it would be good only for a parallel economy that's completely independent and only useful as exchange tokens for illegal goods.

        Only thing I regret is that I didn't begin in the early days of bitcoin to mine it, but you can't hook on to every fad on the internet. Now it's too late and I'd expect that many existing miners will soon cease operation and drop dead. If we are lucky we'll see cheap graphics cards soon on Ebay from those that want to recover some of their losses.

      • I do question if our civilization is functional enough to do something as basic as regulate money laundering though.

        Really? I question why you don't feel the globally valued currency known as the US Dollar, somehow doesn't count here.

        We still print a fuckton of those greenback things for a reason, and it sure as hell isn't because GenX/Y/Z likes to carry cash.

      • It's not going to zero so long as governments ignore it's use for money laundering

        So how much money do you launder through cryptocurrencies? You are so adamant about it every story, I figure it HAS to be projection at this point.
  • by berchca ( 414155 ) on Friday January 21, 2022 @10:59PM (#62196261) Homepage

    Bitcoin is just going to keep growing and growing and growing.

    Put all of your money in it!

    All of you!

    • Is that you Bernie Maddof ?
      • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

        No, I'd expect that we'll see someone that'll top Maddoff when it comes to embezzled money soon.

        • Well, in the Netherlands two con-artists just got away with 125 million euro from the "XPose" coin ICO. Classic pump and dump. They aren't even charged with anything.

          So I expect we'll see a continuous stream of scams for years to come, until someone creates something so big, it threatens a bank or multinational. Then maybe something will be done.

          • by dAzED1 ( 33635 )
            why would they be charged with anything, it's just a planet-destroying Ponzi scheme like all other crypto.
    • When the Bitcoin exchange rate is high, they always interview some kid on tv who invested in it early and now is valued as a millionaire.
      What I do wonder is if they kept their coins or cashed them in at the appropriate time. Would not be surprised to see some lose it all because they did not sell.
  • There is what separates the investors from the dilettantes. Besides, the 2018 bear market was horrific compared to what's going on now. Still, there's a lot of deals to be had out there, if you know where to look . . .

  • TIME TO BUY

  • What will /. post about if crypto fails?

    • What will /. post about if crypto fails?

      Page after page of everyone saying 'I told you so'.

      • What will /. post about if crypto fails?

        Page after page of everyone saying 'I told you so'.

        Which is perfectly fine. If someone's been warned about something and that something happens, why not let them crow? You can even check their posting history to verify they said what they claimed to say.

        I distinctly remember saying back in 2007 on a financial site that you couldn't continually use debt to buy more debt. Guess what happened in 2007-2008.

        • by dryeo ( 100693 )

          You're right, all those bankers who ended up on the street starving when their pyramid crashed, along with the government deciding to quit deficit spending and raised taxes to pay for the wars, to the cheers of the people.

      • by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @08:21AM (#62196755)

        Page after page of everyone saying 'I told you so'.

        Ok then, I didn't tell you so. What I can tell you is that crypto-currency for honest people is a negative-sum game. In a zero-sum game, the amount won by some matches exactly the amount lost by others. In a negative-sum game, the amount won by some is less than the amount of others.

        Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. Bitcoin is created by throwing away lots and lots of energy that could be used in a useful way, damaging the environment. You might as well give me money for my restaurant bills. The more I eat the more you pay me, and if I order food and throw it away, you pay me even more.

        The amount of money paid to honest bitcoin owners equals the amount of money paid by new customers, minus the money spent on mining (which is a lot), minus the money spent on transactions, minus the money spent on fraud, minus the money for bitcoins that are inaccessible due to the less of keys . So it's a negative sum game. The total money paid in is a lot more than the total money checked out.

        That doesn't mean the price can't go up (as well as down). Still, no matter what the price is, the money paid in is a lot more than the money paid out.

        • By that line of reasoning, farming is negative-sum, too. Sunlight is inefficiently(5%) used to drive photosynthetic pathways, water evaporates, fertilizers run off, even some of your output is eaten by pests - you would have far more energy and materials if you kept your original components without trying to turn them into "plant currency."

          But that's wrong because you get something qualitatively different in the end, an output which many people would prefer to even many multiples of the original starting m

  • Is brought under control cryptocurrency will continue to prosper because the money laundering creates a floor it can't fall underneath. It also creates growth potential that speculators can make money off of fairly reliably. Mind you it does this at the expense of all of us who have to pay for the electronics, electricity and infrastructure to support Bitcoin miners. Proof of stake is no better since you still have huge amounts of computing power devoted to the transactions themselves. And yes I know there
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Well. The only reason I see why it is still good for money laundering is that the volume laundered is too small to matter much.

    • Wow, you really want to tell people that you launder money. Maybe you should keep it to yourself instead of trying to use it to earn imaginary internet points
  • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:49PM (#62196327)
    Crypto has wiped off the last 4-9 months gain depending on the coin, but so has the DOW, NASDAQ, S+P, hell all American markets and European markets and even some Asian markets are all suffering heavy losses. This is a much broader trend than just crypto.
    • So it's a global recession? But if we said this naughty word, everyone would be crying and clinching their wallets. Not to mention the warmongers saying who should be bombed to fix this.

      Therefore it's far more easy to say, Cryptocurrencies are in a bear market because people want to reduce risk in things that have no real world value... which is of course ironic.

      • by znrt ( 2424692 )

        recession is about negative gdp growth, has nothing to do with stock market or crypto shenanigans.

        unless these shenanigans crash so badly that they fuck up the entire economy, which is a distinct possibility.

        • I think that's what we are seeing. GDP has gotten tight because of the ongoing pandemic, so we are at the edge.

          The bear market is further pushing investors to see this period as high risk give GDP is so tight. I think it will push us over the edge.

          A lot of the attempts to provide stimulus to the market have passed too, so it's getting pretty challenging.

          I agree with your point though, I was just trying to say the markets are dipping because the economic forecast is so poor, not that they control if we are i

          • Eh, the USA's GDP grew more than 5% last year. It's even 1.4% above where it was pre-pandemic.

            And no, inflation doesn't usually mean recession. Usually it means growth. It's just dramatically unpleasant when it coincides with recession.

            • When you pump trillions of dollars in you hope for a little bump, unfortunately the negatives outweigh the positives of doing this.
          • by znrt ( 2424692 )

            indeed. i'm not even aficionado level economist, but it is obvious that the great growth in these years was a rebound effect after the pandemic suddenly stopped most sectors in their tracks. growing from zero or negative is relatively easy, specially with a huge stimulus and the external disruption fading away. so these growth rates ofc aren't "real", and i wouldn't dare making any predictions but mid term forecasts being pessimistic sounds right to me.

            however, the crypto phenomenon is a different issue, p

    • Crypto has wiped off the last 4-9 months gain depending on the coin, but so has the DOW, NASDAQ, S+P, hell all American markets and European markets and even some Asian markets are all suffering heavy losses. This is a much broader trend than just crypto.

      Cheap and free money pumping up economies is starting to be withdrawn. So most speculative assets are falling.
      But the bitcoin bros told me bitcoin was a hedge against inflation? Well isn't inflation here and going up... Shouldn't bitcoin be increasing now that everyone's fiat dollars are worth less and less...
      Seems bitcoin was just a speculative bubble like everything else.

      • a hedge against inflation implies that it will be negatively correlated with inflation but oil or gold are more proven. I don't think this one jump proves your point but I continue to expect bitcoin to fall like a stone and have been surprised that it has been able to recover and make new highs. I guess wait for some new covid relief checks for the next bump.
        • If gold was a worthwhile hedge against inflation, then wouldn't gold be skyrocketing right now?
          I suspect that cryptocurrency has replaced gold as an inflation hedge.
          Yes, bitcoin is way down right now, but bitcoin has always been crazy volatile.

          • Gold is skyrocketing it hit 1870 about a week ago and is taking a rest before heading higher. Gold does not move to 1/2 value in a few days or double however like bitcoin. No gold has not been replaced except in the mind of a few speculators. All leveraged long positions in Bitcoin are now gone so it might go higher but only because it is heavily manipulated.
      • And this is the answer. I am stunned no one has correlated the drop in the market/bitcoin with the fed's actions. Assuming the fed doesn't back down, expect a major correction in the markets, bitcoin and property.
    • hell all American markets and European markets and even some Asian markets are all suffering heavy losses

      Yup, and this is before the Fed has even begun tightening.

      The Fed is F'd. Covid has destroyed 30 years of carefully balancing casting a shadow of doubt around their activities, against their relentless support for asset prices. But for the first time in my life, even my financially illiterate aunt believes that asset prices will always go up because the government won't let them fall. Valuations no longer matter. Nothing matters, just whether the Fed can be depended on to support prices.

      I don't think even p

      • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        >But for the first time in my life, even my financially illiterate aunt believes that asset prices will always go up because the government won't let them fall. Valuations no longer matter. Nothing matters, just whether the Fed can be depended on to support prices.

        The root of this is in the mistaken assumption from Nixon's visit to China that in trading with the West, China would become more like the West.

        The opposite has happened. West has become more like China. From state using intermediaries to enact

      • I've been a bear for 20 years now. If the Fed backs off, I've already started the ball rolling on buying a house even at current crazy prices. It's over if that happens. Asset prices will go so insane todays values will look like rounding errors, and general inflation is going to get crazy.

        May you wipe your ass with the most worthless of cloth paper, then send it off to settle your mortgage my friend.

  • Happily in at 35,500.

    My Antminer picks up any slight offsets in brokerage timing.

    Best mining profits are when its cheap like this then retraces too.

  • by sudonim2 ( 2073156 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @12:17AM (#62196359)

    Low interest rates reduced the yields of other assets. They also allowed cheap borrowing. So if you want to keep the same returns on all your new, cheap money (loans), you have to put that money in riskier and riskier investments. It's why companies like WeWork and Uber can light huge piles of cash on fire every quarter and still have more investment dollars pour in to fuel the bonfire.

    But inflation is kicking in now. And interest rates are climbing in response. Which means that cheap money is starting to dry up. And all the fires are going out.

    That's what's actually happening to the crypto market.

  • Looks to me like they are selling out to create enough liquidity to keep their scams going as all their errors are compounding to drain their wallets.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    On Monday April 26, 2021 @02:16AM UTC, Pyrite Pete [urbandictionary.com] had said:

    That was back when bitcoin had already fallen, and down to about $47K at the time. It should've been back up to "twice its value" no later than June 26 2021 - six months ago. It is now sitting at only about $36K.

    Now that's what I call a prediction #FAIL!

  • We need updates on this every fifteen minutes, and slashdot is obviously The Right Place. The editors can automate it, yawn, and continue polishing their nails, or whatever they actually do.

  • by bb_matt ( 5705262 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @01:20AM (#62196437)

    I take anything so called "Cryptocurrency experts" say, with a massive pinch of salt.

    One of the most ridiculous "tools" in their trade, is to roll out TA (technical analysis) and point at dips, rises and patterns.
    Things like "the death cross" for example, or drawing triangles all over the place to prove a theory of where the market is going.

    I'm sure, TA, in the hands of highly experienced traders, is a useful tool, but I'm also sure those traders are closely following many far more important risk factors.
    The likes of coindesk etc. , seem to mainly just point at charts and warble on about "moving day averages", to make predictions and when things tank or rise, they may roll out some of the other factors that caused the problem.

    It seems clear to anyone with even half a brain, that cryptocurrency has just been a useful place for large investors to put some of their money.
    They know it has no intrinsic value at all, not even in an abstract sense, but are able to effectively leverage it.
    It is that leveraging that sent the price of BTC to such ridiculous heights last year and that sees it plummeting back down again.

    But let the "cryptocurrency experts" haul out their tea leaves and read those palms, for all the difference it makes.

    I often wonder how much of this so called "news" is just sophisticated shilling and how much money is changing hands behind the scenes.
    After all, if you have a million eyeballs on a "good news" story about an ALT coin, that appears on the surface to have been written by an expert, there's every chance the price goes up.

    Now, it's all just going down - quick, haul out the charts, let's TA this sucker to see where it's heading... hold on, I'll get my tarot cards and my bones for rolling...

    • Happens in the stock market too. This is how tech companies get valued at billions/trillions when they don't make a profit. Me, I think crazy.
    • "sophisticated shilling" - that's pretty much what SlashDot does. Well, for certain values of sophisticated.
    • I spent a year on a project because I was convinced I could use indicators algorithms to predict the market, and the algorithms would buy and sell at the right times really well, except they didn't work on future data. There is no way to predict the market, I've determined. You can chart all day, but you can't predict new info like news or the decisions of millions of people that determine price.

      TLDR charts don't work

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I bought like $10 before Christmas. They said I'd be a billionaire, but just like everything else I invest in, it crashes just after I get on the bandwagon.

  • Cheap cryptocurrency is best cryptocurrency.

  • When the chart line for Bitcon and other crypto is angled downward at a 70 degrees that's not tumbling. It's called plunging. Or perhaps cratering.

  • Bitcoin is a store of value. Increases in Bitcoin cost versus the Dollar means that the Dollar is being devalued by increased dollar creation and inflation in the U.S. (*smirk*)

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Precisely. So the current plunging of the Bitcoin-Dollar exchange rate *actually* means that the US dollar is deflating at an unprecedented rate!

  • Seriously the market is rigged and tumbling fast. https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01... [jacobinmag.com]
  • In Cabo Frio, dos Santos’ success inspired other budding entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps — not to mention those of Charles Ponzi, who died nearby in a Rio de Janeiro hospital charity ward in 1949. The Italian immigrant who engineered one of the largest scams in U.S. history in the 1920s was buried in a public Rio cemetery with his last $75.

    Some competitors promised even higher returns than G.A.S. — 20% or more a month.

    Cabo Frio Mayor José Bonifácio acknowledged his c

  • by walterbyrd ( 182728 ) on Saturday January 22, 2022 @02:57PM (#62197521)

    > Bitcoin is down roughly 40% from its all-time high of almost $69,000, while the S&P 500 is down about 7% from its peak, compared with a 10% drawdown in the Nasdaq 100 Index.

    Okay, but compare bitcoin to those indexes since 2009. Of course bitcoin is crazy volatile, but people are still getting rich.

    BTW: I think bitcoin is an earth destroying Ponzi scheme. I don't own any, and never have. But, that's not to say that people are not getting rich.

  • At least with Dutch tulips you got a pretty flower that would last for years.

The optimum committee has no members. -- Norman Augustine

Working...