If we look at the market cap today we see mostly red. This downtrend follows the recent upsurge where Bitcoin saw it's highest price of the year and many alts rallied briefly before slightly pulling back to recent prices. Others dropped substantially, where these lower marketcap alt coins are seeing some of their lowest prices of the year.
We saw many crypto advocates clamoring HODL with the recent BTC surge, while right now the bears and skeptics are having a field day and are absolutely thrilled with the market pullback.
Most of the coins are capsizing, but we have to ask ourselves why?
After the recent price run-up, and so many coins shooting up so fast a lot of people made money this time around. HODL advocates and Bitcoin maximalists rejoiced because they finally got their wish of Bitcoin breaking $10,000. Seeing impressive gains is often thrilling and can produce feelings of euphoria while increasing the value of one's portfolio but fear often sets in when the bears start to bite.
This trend of selling off isn't new, but new buyers and sellers have entered the market with the onset of 2019. Plenty of new exchanges offering USD onramps sprang up this year, such as Voyager and more users are going to platforms like Robinhood. Cryptocurrency has started taking off and is really gaining more national press and adoption.
Interestingly, some professionals are actually saying to buy right now instead of selling. In the face of prices dropping horribly, buyers not interested in fast gains are digging in on these discount prices. They believe prices will still go up, and long-term gains have still yet to be solidified.
Personally, for me, price fluctuations in either direction are commonplace in any market. As a trader, getting too emotionally invested in any coin or market can spell disaster; it's good to be logical with merit and to use reason as with better judgment going into these financial markets especially where large sums of money are involved. There is never a guarantee to make money. Losing money comes with the territory and is a part of growing.
See: 10 Reasons Traders Lose Money
Investors must still use their better judgment here, as in any market -- your investments can decrease in value and you will lose money. And while true to a degree, you haven't lost any money until you've sold your position at a loss and locked it in, you can't be for certain that a price will always go back up. They don't always go back up, it is not guaranteed or required to nut I believe in the case of Bitcoin, they will. And while I can't be certain about some of the other markets doesn't mean they will all go straight to zero without retesting recent highs or even seeing even higher values in the future.
I do believe in cryptocurrency's long-term feasibility however and I do see Bitcoin being at the helm though I truly see potential and solid use cases for others. Litecoin, for example, has solidified as an excellent store of value, highly secure and impressively speedy, NANO is another one that could spring up maybe even one day, retest all-time highs? Who knows? That's the beauty of it all, is that nobody knows. This is all speculation, and we invest with hopes to make money. And maybe we will never strike it rich, but hopefully, we will pick a few winners here and there and have enough to carry us over until the next time.
Bitcoin has been gaining momentum since the turn of spring but is the coin fated to drop in value forever and should buying Bitcoins be akin to buying lottery scratch-offs at the 7-11 hoping for a quick comeup? I don't believe so. The trade volume looks good, and the indicators show the market is at least much healthier than it was late 2018.
Ideally the price will continue to rocket throughout the year, but looking at things objectively we must expect downtrending market prices and accept them as a normal part of life. I expect market trends to continue at a similar pace into the near future and don't expect things to drastically shift over night. I'm not a market expert but I don't treat the market like a get rich quick scheme either.
I wish eveyone the very best in their crypto ventures, and wish traders and investors alike get all the gains. I will continue watching the market until next time when I take a look at blockchain gaming!
References:
https://www.seeitmarket.com/10-reasons-traders-lose-money-trading-market-13891/ https://coinmarketcap.com/ http://www.theweek.co.uk/cryptocurrencies/91014/crypto-crash-bitcoin-and-ethereum-plummet-in-value https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-the-mother-of-all-bubbles-is-now-crashing-2018-2 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/bitcoin-loses-more-half-its-value-amid-crypto-crash-n844056
