Bitcoin volatility is about to rise !

What's Happening ?

Tomorrow, July 14th, the BTC1 software will be downloaded by tons of miners, nodes and wallets in order to begin the New York Agreement (or Segwit2x) testing. For more information in what are those, please refer to the article Bitcoin Hardfork for Dummies.

The whole bitcoin community is waiting to see the test's results and that is probably gonna be the main subject of the following days. The price will react accordingly , so that if many problems are found we should expect the price to decline, if it fits well, we should expect it to rise.

Miners have up to July 29th to signal their support for SegWit2x. If 80% of the hash rate signal supports it, the SegWit2x will be implemented on August 1st. As of today, if is expected that this level of acceptance is easily surpassed, but all can change in the next few days.

In case the support decreases a lot, we may expect some sort of bitcoin crisis.

So what ?

The thing is, nowadays bitcoin has attracted a lot of attention from a non-technical public, and the unfolding events are of highly technical nature. If you're not aware of what's going on right now and/or do not have an opinion about it, you should really consider cutting down bitcoin exposure, because otherwise you're probably taking unwanted risks, and that can end badly.

What to do ?

Well, you can just convert it back to fiat. But it is not absolutely necessary to get rid of your crypto exposition to avoid getting caught in the middle of a fight. Also, you may avoid paying taxes by not liquidating your position.

Alternatively, you can convert your bitcoin to some large cap alternative crypto currencies. According to CoinMarketCap, the runner ups are Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin. You may use famous alt coins exchanges like Poloniex and Bittrex.

Another way is to buy Tether, which is a digital token that is meant to be worth 1 USD each, and it does a decent job doing so. It is available on poloniex.

If you decide to keep your bitcoins, keep in mind that the following events can lead to a Bitcoin Hardfork and check out this article on How to protect yourself from a hardfork.

Hope it helps, Cheers !