Bitcoin Dips Below $6,000 as Cryptocurrency Exodus Accelerates

[Julian Englis]

Source: Bloomerg Media

The rout in cryptocurrencies rolled on, sending Bitcoin to its lowest level since October, as worries over tighter regulation by U.S. authorities and central bankers elsewhere gave traders fresh reasons to sell after a brutal start to 2018.

The selloff has now knocked more than half a trillion dollars from digital coins since early January. That’s shaken a nascent market whose core attraction -- anonymity and decentralization -- is being challenged as never before by regulators.

Bitcoin, the biggest virtual currency, sank 8.8 percent to $6,477 at 12:03 p.m. London time, after earlier sliding to as low as $5,922, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Alternative coins Ripple, Ether and Litecoin also tumbled at least 9 percent.

“Crypto is being driven by daily negative news,” said Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst in London at online trading firm Oanda Corp. “There’s regulation speculation in India, South Korea, and the U.S. And then there’s hacking, the Facebook situation and finally the Tether story has people worried as well.”

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-06/bitcoin-slumps-below-7-000-as-cryptos-hit-by-risk-asset-rout

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Oh, really

gotta get me some Dutch Tulip bulbs, we could use those an currency

[Lokilooney]

18. Nah, I hear Lupins are the next hottest thing.

Just keep them away from the cat...

[no_hypocrisy]

2. What was the highest rate?

[DetlefK]

3. $20,000

[dewsgirl]

4. Yesterday Russian bots/Trump supporters were

Pushing crypto currency/Bitcoin hard.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Moving large sums of money internationally at low cost without fingerprints

might be popular amongst that crowd

[eggplant]

9. Except it does have fingerprints.

Forensic analysis can unwind most transactions.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. That conflicts with everything i've read

it's a public ledger of gobbledy-gook, encrypted.

I think it's still a gray area.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Cash is similarly fungible and obfuscatable, for a fee, and with patience.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are harder to trace, but still must get from point a to point b, which to some degree can be tracked, and also turns from a number, into goods or services that are consumed or delivered.

It's harder. Some tracking methods aren't available, that law enforcement is used to using. Doesn't mean it's the wild wild west.

[eggplant]

15. Cash is truly fungible. Cryptocurrency, ironically, isn't.

Cryptocurrency is a permanent ledger of transactions between (theoretically) anonymous "wallets". But if someone is able to be connected to a particular wallet, then every transaction made by them via that wallet is identifiable. Forensic accountants are able to unwind much of this sort of traffic. It takes time, and yes, the starting points are where you go between cryptocurrency and the real world.

Some of the transaction may be encrypted, but the payment itself can't be, or else there is no way for anyone to be sure that someone actually possesses the cryptocurrency they claim to have. Blockchains allow for anything to be encrypted before placing them into the ledger, so things like the name and address of, say, a buyer and seller, along with what was actually bought or sold, can be encrypted. Traditionally this is done with public key encryption, which can take a very long time to decrypt, but once a key is discovered, you can decrypt all of the traffic that used it.

Cash, on the other hand, doesn't work that way. If someone is able to determine that I bought something with a particular $20 bill, it provides them zero insight into other transactions I've made. Cash is effectively anonymous once it has been in circulation for a while.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. That's a really good point. The anonymity is only as deep as the owner of the wallet.

Once the wallet owner is known, their entire transaction history is known.

In your latter scenario, someone that was party to the transaction has to sing, to figure it out.

[eggplant]

19. Here's a good overview article

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/why-criminals-cant-hide-behind-bitcoin

[MisterProton]

21. I suggest you look into ZCash.

And once you "find the key"? Is that all there is to it? Well, that might be easier said than done...

How secure is 256 bit security?

[dembotoz]

6. Are they tired of winning yet?

[Blue_Tires]

7. Rinse and repeat

Bitcoin rises in value and all the libertarian hot take artists brag about the millions they're worth now and hype up their imaginary currency across all media to be the biggest thing since Jesus and then all the suckers dump their money in and just like clockwork we see the stories about "$11 billion of bitcoin value stolen/hacked from exchange accounts by Chinese/Korean/Czech/etc. hackers..."

Not that I was ever dumb enough to be seduced by this scam, but even if I was I'd at least like the slightest reassurance that my investment was secure, right?

[Politicub]

8. Bitcoin is fueled by whining libertarians

I remember reading years ago about someone in China or Japan who became a millionaire trading virtual real estate in the 3D Second Life game.

Second Life went down the bubble hole along with MySpace: a cautionary tale for Bitcoin traders.

[getagrip_already]

12. and alt-righters....

They were heavy into it as a way to keep it out of obamas hands. Poor bubbies, all that virtual wealth gone. IT's all obamas fault.

[concreteblue]

11. I'm gonna crash y'alls party.....

Blockchain tech is NOT going away. Credit Suisse, Chase, Microsoft and IBM etc are NOT investing in it to lose money. The price of btc and other cryptos was inflated. Now the big investors are driving the price down to get back in at pennies on the $. Now is a great time to take $100 and look for cryptos that have actual technology behind them and solve real problems. Also look for those whose price has held relatively steady during the downturn.
A few hundred invested in the next couple months will fund your retirement.
Disclaimer: I am invested in XLM, ADA, IOTA, ARK, BTS, and looking to invest in medical, insurance and gambling sectors.

[getagrip_already]

13. when the big banks offer it, it will be tracked...

No matter what mechanism they use to let you store money, they are still under laws for reporting and criminal screening. Well, except for deutche bank.

But what people need to realize about bitcoin is that is a ponzi scheme. There is no bank holding assetts. You can only get money out if someone puts money in when you want to get out.

If it goes legit, who is going to put money in? Your bitcoins can become worthless instantly.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

23. Cool story, dude. Nt

[JNelson6563]

26. Yep. My son made his first million

last year. All different coins. I gave him 200 and less than 3 years later I took 25,000 to buy condo.

As Bitcoin was skyrocketing he stacked up cash. Was thrilled when his exchange lifted daily cash out limit from 10,000 to 100,000.

Of course when he first got in Bitcoin was 140 or so.

[Eugene]

20. Bitcoin Snaps Slide as Crypto Markets Dodge Push for Regulation

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin Snaps Slide as Crypto Markets Dodge Push for Regulation

By Lily Katz and Olga Kharif
February 5, 2018, 9:25 PM EST Updated on February 6, 2018, 3:46 PM EST

→ Digital coins have still lose $500 billion in value since peak
→ SEC chairman says that all ICOs are securities during hearing

Bitcoin rose for the first time in six days, snapping a losing streak that had helped push overall losses in digital currencies to about $500 billion, as the top U.S. market cops said they possessed all the authority needed to regulate and risk appetite returned to financial markets.

Prices steadied as Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton reiterated in a Congressional hearing that he believes every initial coin offering he’s seen is a securities sale and the agency already possesses the regulatory oversight needed for enforcement.

“It was great for the space,” said John O’Rourke, chief executive officer of Riot Blockchain Inc., which invests in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. “They don’t want to do anything to hamper the development of this technology.”

Lawmakers may still need to to pass legislation that gives agencies jurisdiction over Bitcoin’s spot market and the online platforms that digital coins trade on, Clayton and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said during the hearing.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-06/bitcoin-slumps-below-7-000-as-cryptos-hit-by-risk-asset-rout

[MisterProton]

22. Old news...

Its headed back up now. Up already 17% in the last day.

https://coinmarketcap.com/

[TomCADem]

24. YES! Maybe I Can Finally Buy a 1070 GTX

The prices on gpus have been ridiculous.

[Xolodno]

25. The real question is...

...who sold?

Some were obviously were profit taking, but for what?

[MisterProton]

28. Institutional money...

and a lot of weak hands. It's par for the course that the market gets pumped and dumped periodically by "whales". The people that hold can just sit on the sidelines and watch with some popcorn, but the people that panic and sell out cheaper than they bought it for get fleeced. (as they should... never invest into one thing more than your risk tolerance allows).

The good thing as market cap and liquidity goes up, it will be harder and harder for one person or group to move the price drastically, although it will always happen to some extent I'm sure.

[concreteblue]

27. And then there's this:

https://bitsonline.com/senator-warner-20-trillion/
"Virginia Senator Mark Warner sounded quite bullish on cryptocurrencies during today’s U.S. Senate hearing on the cryptoverse. Then again, Warner’s not one to miss a trend, as he himself became a multimillionaire years ago during the wireless cellphone craze. He sees the rise of crypto as being a major wealth boom similarly. "

[BadGimp]

29. Up over $8,000 today

https://www.worldcoinindex.com/