I have been in and around the STEEM platform for a couple of years now. Not the same account. I have changed names before mainly trying to find a good catchy name for a blog I could enjoy writing. I must say, I am not disappointed that the price is so low. In fact I think it's good that STEEM seems to have found a price floor. Price floors are usually implemented by governments to prevent a commodity from being sold less than a certain specific price. Although, markets also tend to also find a natural price for a commodity (the lowest price someone ever paid for a unit). The current STEEM prices seems to be a market price floor. In other words, market conditions seem to have leveled out.
As an Optimist, I'm looking at the bright side with all the products and communities building around STEEM, the natural effect is that we will ultimately see they much more positive price. For the moment there are many things affecting crypto prices in general. These are some of the few that I have considered:
Banking regulations
Banks around the world have realize that the masses are interested in cryptocurrency and other digital assets. Why? Well they understand the potential of the technology that blockchain. In fact, they are some of the few institutions that are investing heavily in researching blockchain. The lifeblood of a bank is the ability to charge interest over tokens. They lend money to charge an interest, and therefore make money. Blockchain and digital assets are a direct threat to Banks. Realizing this, banks have began to impose a number of unspoken measures against cryptocurrencies. For example, banks that were allowing Fiat to flow directly to digital token exchanges, have stopped doing so. Also, some banks do not allow their issued credit cards to be used to purchase cryptocurrency.
Check out this link by @ura-soul
https://steemit.com/threespeak/@ura-soul/mevhvstr
Government regulations
Do any of you remember when there were stories of countries that wanted to fund their financial institutions with cryptocurrencies? What happened to them? My theory is that they have been subtlety pressured to halt such ideas. Banks and governments work hand-in-hand to provide as much financial stability as they can to a nation. The idea of government transparency through blockchain has also become irreconcilable. Governments, like Banks depends on obscure transactions to achieve nefarious goals. The chances that a government uses blockchain as a tool for transparency are very thin.
News coverage
Again, in synchronization with government and banking, major news outlets have reduced their commenting of cryptocurrencies. In my opinion, they will not and have not ever gone in-depth to explain the need for the wide use of decentralized tokens. It is not the in self interest of the big media corporation to promote Bitcoin and other digital assets. Why? Because free speech is being empowered by blockchain. The power is being redirected to the individual, and not the collective.
Here is a interesting view point from @heiditravels that sheds some light on what’s going on at Bitmex.
My opinion:
In my opinion I think that there’s two great things 2 take away from this change in perspective to tokens.
First of all, we must be doing something right. Change is always followed by opposition, and change is usually for the better. The fact that we are receiving opposition from the ruling class (bureaucrats, banksters, and other statist types) tells me that we are threatening their modus operandi. It is affecting them.
Secondly, I'm understanding that we need to do more. I can do more. If my free, unhindered access to blockchain technology is changing the world for the better, that I need to study it, use it more broadly and talk more about the subject.
In summary, the price the price of STEEM, Bitcoin, and other digital assets is under attack by the media. STEEM is not the only one affected, and the price IS very low. This is not something that overly concerns me because we are at war and we are injuring the centralized powers that be. Going back to my initial though about a market price floor.