We are finally approaching the despair phase of the crypto market. This is where the streets run red with blood and everyone feels as though the market has betrayed them.
Ethereum is massively oversold. It keeps getting lampooned in the news left and right. Where once everyone was talking about the death of Bitcoin for the thousandth time, now the media has shifted to altcoins. Ask yourself why this is, because the answer is simple.
Bitcoin is becoming zombified.
The great dragon of Bitcoin is about to be slain by the White Walkers.
The soulless entities that own this world only destroy their enemies as a last resort. Their first course of action is to convert the opposition into their own ranks; to enslave them; to bribe the leaders with cushy positions and high ranks at the cost of subjugation for the rest.
Bitcoin is a worthy advisory; a decentralized enemy with no head to cut off. Clever, but not clever enough. ETFs and endless market manipulation will bring Bitcoin to heel. If you can't beat them, buy them out. This is the way of the banker.
Using the newfound leverage acquired by the winter 2017 pump and dump, the iron fist of the establishment seeks to stomp on all the altcoins currently out of their control, but easily manipulated through Bitcoin. Article after article of an ETF being the biggest hope, altcoins being worthless, and Ethereum crashing to zero.
Every time Bitcoin falls back to its support near $6000 it seems to stomp altcoins into the dirt and gain dominance. ERC-20 projects, terrified that they will lose their seed money for development, have begun to unload their stake. A 10% crash in Bitcoin seems to bring a 20%-30% crash to everything else. When Bitcoin recovers the altcoins seems a bit stunted and crash even farther on the next wave.
In 2014 Bitcoin crashed five fold. This was devastating, but it also included devastating developments like Mt. Gox and the like. Ethereum, a superior product in my opinion, has already crashed 7 fold from $1400 to $200. Why? What devastating events have ensued? In my opinion it's simply a speculative attack. Team Bitcoin is projecting competition into this cooperative arena, and it's working.
Much like Steem uses SBD to temporarily prop up the value, so does Ethereum use ERC-20 to do the same. Well, the chickens have come home to roost. Now, hundreds of projects are forced into risk analysis as to whether they should hold their Ether or not. The choice for most is simple: it's not worth going bankrupt when you can sell out and ensure the project survives longer.
Yet development chugs along regardless of price action. What does this mean? It means that FUD is going to push Ethereum prices down even farther as ICOs capitulate to losing a battle instead of risking the war. It means that Ethereum (and other altcoins) continues to make constant gains in fundamental value but is going to continue to lose speculative value.
Bitcoin double agent.
This pendulum of FUD vs FOMO swings both ways. The SEC claims they are rejecting ETFs because Bitcoin is too easy to manipulate. Do you believe them? You shouldn't. It's already been shown that you should do the exact opposite of what the media suggests.
Do you really believe that CNBC gets it wrong 95% of the time on accident? That is an insane percentage. It's so inaccurate that it's ironically amazingly accurate. Suspiciously accurate to the point of coming to the obvious conclusion that market manipulation is rampant. And why wouldn't it be? This is an unregulated market; no one is going to jail for this.
Again, do you really believe the SEC is rejecting ETFs because of this manipulation? No. They are letting the elite get their ducks in a row. The ultimate manipulations haven't even begun yet. They will accept an ETF, not because it's safe to do so, but because they've been paid off or simply given the greed green light from their evil overlords. That's when the fun begins.
How to profit from this situation.
An ETF will obviously trigger a bull run for Bitcoin. Simply acquire Bitcoin before that happens. Best case scenario (and also likely) is that Bitcoin spikes before everything else. You can then take your spoils and try to get the double run-up on other chains that haven't spiked yet. Am I going to do this? Probably not. I'm not here to make money, I'm here to support decentralization. Trying to profit from wall street money is the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish.
I've lost a ton of money from margin trading Ethereum. I've taken out a $1000 loan with the MakerDAO and I only own 9 Ethereum. Am I worried about this loss? Not really. In fact, I hope that it crashes farther. I would love nothing more than for Ethereum to crash to $100. At that price, it would be so insanely oversold I would be a fool to not buy more. This is the advantage of a price crash: you can buy more for cheap and you remove speculators from the ecosystem. All who remain are the die hard loyalists. Low prices can make decentralization easier. When the price spikes that's when you get a new wave of fresh meat ready for the grinder. Both sides of the spectrum have value.
Aren't I worried about the Ethereum Killers? Nope. Just like Bitcoin, Ethereum will be the go to most trusted smart contract platform with the longest track history and brand recognition. In addition, it's easy to see why Ethereum forks (ETC) are inferior to the main chain, while this is not so much the case with Bitcoin. It's also becoming quite obvious that I can make easy money by working here at Steem as a programmer.
In my wildest dream I now think of Bitcoin as the great leader of an army. Every altcoin is a new soldier. Many of these new soldiers even have better armor and weapons than Bitcoin itself, but far less training. Some are simple farm boys marching into slaughter. The enemy? Greed. Bitcoin will lead the charge, breach the gates for all his loyal soldiers, and will die valiantly for his noble cause: to protect the weak and and expose our evil overlords for all to see. I expect to see a financial and industrial revolution of biblical proportion, where open source decentralization and transparency trump the glorified mobster society that we live in today.
How dramatic!
Bitcoin is about to be converted to the enemy, however, this is a trap. Bitcoin is a Trojan horse. Ultimately, an ETF will give the establishment much more control over Bitcoin, but that money will also be flowing into every altcoin. Bitcoin has brand and is slow to change. It's more secure than other coins. This is what makes it attractive to old money. However, what's going to happen when the space evolves and smart contract platforms begin to actually bring us killer apps? These are the kind of technologies that make us wonder what we did without them, much like we view social media, smartphones, and broadband internet.
The elite will be left holding the Bitcoin bag, but who's going to want Bitcoin when another blockchain has a million times more functionality? Remember, the establishment is a slow lumbering beast, just like Bitcoin. They aren't going to have time to react to the speed of blockchain development.
The elite expect that Bitcoin will act like a corporation. They don't expect Bitcoin to have a lifespan. They expect it to live forever, that's what they're used to. They are wrong. Wave after wave of open source blockchain evolution is going to hit us like a tsunami. The old coins will die and make way for the new; the way evolution was intended. Each time this happens the establishment will be holding the wrong bag until they finally die a violent floundering death. I'm not looking forward to that shit show, but what are we going to do about it? Stand in front of a tidal wave and you'll surely drown.
Why do I think they will always be left holding the empty bag? How could they guess wrong every time? Well, they aren't. They are their own corrupting force responsible for their own downfall. Those who want to stop being taken advantage of will flee to the blockchains that provide the greatest degree of freedom. I almost wonder if this is what Satoshi Nakamoto intended all along.