The birds and the bulls

So, crashing and splashing is on the cards for today is it? Well, dem the breaks eh? I bought Some BTC the other day at about 8200 because essentially whenever I have a little bit of cash spare, I just buy whatever I can while I can. If I spend too much time second guessing it all and waiting for the perfect time, I am unlikely to ever find it as when that time arrives, I will be doing something else. I knew that since I was travelling this week *I wouldn't have a great deal of opportunity to spend on the markets, so I bought before leaving.

If there is a winter bullrun like some people are suggesting there might be, I am looking forward to offloading some of the shit that I have and getting into more shit that I have, like STEEM. I don't care much about buying at the absolute lows currently because I figure that if this crazy shit does anywhere near what is possible, it won't matter so much and just being a part of it will be good enough for me. As the adage goes:

The early bird catches the bull.

Anyone who holds any crypto now is a potential early bird, but I assume that many are going to sell as soon as price hits what they consider the ceiling, but what is that ceiling? It is hard to predict because at the moment there is a fair amount of volatility but the volumes are low, as are the numbers of participants.

What is interesting is that the daily trading value on crypto markets in the last 24 h was about 80 billion dollars with a total cap around 200 billion worth. For reference, that is almost half the trading value on the NYSE a day which has a market cap of *23 trillion, as they trade 200 billion a day, the entire market cap of cryptos.

W
T
F

How the hell can crypto with literally less than 1% of the value of the New York Stock Exchange be anywhere close to 50% of the trading volume?? Something doesn't seem to add up here, but perhaps with the low fees and lack of regulation on crypto trades, the willingness to trade is much higher in crypto, plus the potential to gain on it is a hell of a lot higher.

Who the hell is trading so much though?

You see the movies with Gordon Gekko "greed is good" type people screaming on the trade floor to buy and sell, yet the crypto traders seem to leave them in their dust, trading like fucking animals in comparison considering that the value of what is traded is so low. This definitely sounds like an industry that banks are looking to hedge their own bets in as the buy in is low, the potential to pump insane.

Not only that, the potential for the blockchain and crypto industries to actually bring something of value to the market is also high considering the forays into the tech so many companies are making. This means that they can pump it like its on honeymoon with a low capital investment, and still end up with a highly lucrative hold that could very well stabilize their own portfolios once they start to being their corporate clients in, and then the private clients to pump the values so that the corporate feel good about their buy in the stereotypical bank ponzi-esque frame they have created.

In some way, what the banks do is essentially front-run investors by first buying and then creating the marketplace to buy into, then promise to their clients that they will bring in weight to stack on top and squeeze more juice out of the investment. Those who are in crypto now are the ones who are frontrunning the frontrunners, the early adopters who are after the worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle.

"¡Arriba, Arriba! ¡Ándale, Ándale!"

Of course, just like Speedy Gonzalez, we want it all to hurry up so we can retire from this crypto life and live in the suburbs behind a picket fence with 2.3 kids, a dog and a pornstar wife. Unfortunately, it feels more like Slowpoke Rodriguez is at the helm, Speedy's stoner cousin.

But, it only feels that way, because as far as investments and stocks usually perform, crypto markets are absolutely smashing it on average, even with the dropouts and scams factored in. Though, if you bought into Bitconnect looking for a quick buck, you probably deserve to get burned.

"Greed is good"

When it pays off....

And, the "pay off" is something that many are looking for and speculating on without factoring in components that actually matter, like whether the shit they are buying actually has any purpose at all. Most are likely scams with "dreamer ideas" sold to hype the shit out of them so that those who created can ladder out and those who buy in can get fucked over.

Definitely makes for a dynamic environment and on Steem, we get ringside seats to all the types of people in crypto, hopefuls and workers, to maximizers and scammers. I don't get why so many people find it difficult to be part of the community when there is just so many interesting things going on, but then - not everyone is cut out for the trading floor, the debate hall or the art gallery.

While people will say they move away because it isn't worth it, I think the main reason is that they are not cut out for early adoption and all the problems that come with it. It takes a special kind of person to work for free toward something that comes with no guarantees, no glamour and very little return. It takes a special kind of crazy.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]