Bitcoin's meteoric rise last year had many observers calling it one of the biggest speculative manias in history. The cryptocurrency's 2018 crash may help cement its place in the bubble record books. Down 70 percent from its December high after sliding for a fourth straight day on Friday, bitcoin is getting ever-closer to matching the Nasdaq Composite Index's 78 percent peak-to-trough plunge after the U.S. dot-com bubble burst. Hundreds of other virtual coins have all but gone to zero -- following the same path as Pets.com and other red-hot initial public offerings that flamed out in the early 2000s. While bitcoin has bounced back from bigger losses before, it's far from clear that it can repeat the feat now that much of the world knows about cryptocurrencies and has made up their mind on whether to invest. Bulls point to the Nasdaq's eventual recovery and say institutional investors represent a massive pool of potential cryptocurrency buyers, but regulatory and security concerns have so far kept most big money managers on the sidelines. Bitcoin declined as much as 4.2 percent to $5,791 on Friday, the lowest level since November, according to Bloomberg composite prices. It traded at $5,878 as of 10:33 a.m. in New York, down 59 percent for the year and heading for a second-quarter loss of 14 percent. Other coins including Ether and Litecoin slumped more, while the combined value of tokens tracked by CoinMarketCap.com declined to $236 billion. At the peak of crypto-mania, they were worth about $830 billion. While it was difficult to find fresh catalysts for bitcoin's drop on Friday, hacks at two South Korean exchanges and a regulatory clampdown in Japan have weighed on sentiment in recent weeks. Regulators around the world have stepped up scrutiny of cryptocurrencies on concern that they're a breeding ground for illicit activity including money laundering, market manipulation and fraud. Lesser-known tokens have been hit the hardest. Dead Coins lists around 800 that are effectively worth nothing, while Coinopsy puts the tally at more than 1,000. Fewer than 4 percent of coins with market caps from $50 million to $100 million were successful or promising, according to a March analysis from ICO advisory firm Satis Group. Bitcoin may not go to zero, but it's "very much" a bubble, Robert Shiller, the Nobel laureate economist whose warnings about dot-com mania proved prescient, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Tom Keene on Tuesday. Last year's Bitcoin surge was "not a rational response," he said. Article from SFGATE Yesterday
Or it'll just go back to the currency of the darkweb as it should be and get all these wallstreet types from speculating on it. #GiveMeBackMyCoin
That's me at this point. Once it's that low I'll buy a couple of physical bitcoin (yes, they exist) just to have.
Physical Bitcoins have the private keys on them (Typically) once the key is exposed .. it's 'value' is moved off to a wallet .. so no BitCoins remain it'll just be a shiny trinket that people will want to extract a 'Collectable' value price out of ya to obtain.
Believe it or not @VisuTrac I fully understand that, which is why I've also considered buying a "spent" coin just for the novelty. I've been in and out of it for going on I think 6 years. Currently I'm out (although I wish I'd stayed in for another 6 months from when I finally spent all I had on my son's desktop computer). I "cashed out" via Newegg when they were about $700/ea (I think). But as with all speculative investments, I took the risk and was still ahead something like 800%, so I can't complain too loudly.
That's cool! I was basically adding the information for those that may fall across the thread and think .. ooo, I can get a BitCoin for less than a tenth of what it's worth and find out they paid about 100x too much for the empty coin.
Bitcoin, stocks, bonds, houses, tulips, etc, all share the same common thread, their value is based on the existence of a greater fool willing to buy what ever you have to sell. If there is no willing buyer, they have no value and no words or pumping efforts will give them value over time. Since the stock market began,all of its value has been created by someone's investments and over the long run, minus dividends, the total value of all stocks is undetermined. The original purpose of stocks, as a means to raise money for physical capital and as a way to hedge risk in case of disaster, has given way to a Las Vegas game and as in Vegas, with the house taking part of the money gambled, the house always wins in the long run, either in Wall Street or Vegas.
lol its all about timing I made several grand off of bit coin a few years ago and got out. Glad its talking it's more of a show piece that the USD
