Dear Steemit Friends,
Cryptocurrencies have had a very tough start of the year, but for those of you who have been in the market for as many years as I have, all understand one thing. This is nothing new. Everyone is panicking right now and rightfully so, but who wouldn't when you see a sea of red when it comes to the overall drop in value in all of the top cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin.
Today we saw Bitcoin drop below what most people expected as a safe floor of $8000. Especially after a weekend of somewhat positive traction towards price recovery. This, of course, is due to a flurry of back-to-back bad news and new reports that Bank of America, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase said they would no longer allow Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be bought with their credit cards. What most people don't understand is that this is not a new development. This ban on cryptocurrency purchases using your credit cards has been in effect for a couple of months now and is just now hitting the news in official statements.
We have seen time-and-time again industries turn their backs on Cryptocurrencies, but in the long run, end up turning around and coming back when the market settles and a better understanding of the ecosystem takes hold. This bear market is just a typical reaction to bad news as most reporting agencies jump on the bandwagon of distributing the same bad information.
I am by far not in any position to give any trading advice, but in my opinion, this is a good opportunity to not only hold what you have but also buy in if you have the extra finances you can afford to spend. Cryptocurrency investment is not for the faint of heart. Big gains always follow Big losses.
In a post by CNBC, financial advisor Ric Edelman states the following:
When people buy and sell in a dizzied cycle, they miss the bigger picture of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology on which it's traded, said financial advisor Ric Edelman, founder and executive chairman of Edelman Financial Services.
"There's no question that digital currencies are the future," Edelman said. "You should be prepared to own it for years."
He said his decision to hold bitcoin for years has paid off.
"I've watched it go from $1 to $1,000, back to $200 and then to $16,000," he said.
Although he acknowledged that such ups and downs are intolerable for some people.
"If owning this asset is causing you to stare at the ceiling at night, you shouldn't own it," he said. "There's more to life than money."
The above refers to any investment that is risky. If you are like me and believe that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are the future, hold for the future. If you look at it from a bigger perspective, the price of Bitcoin today is still higher than it was just a few months ago. Only short-term investors are really suffering from the loss. I mined and purchased some of my Bitcoin assets when they were worth only $200 USD so from an earnings perspective I'm still earning. If you look at the market cap for cryptocurrencies, we are roughly 20x where we were this time last year and we all expected that such a dramatic rise in value would lead to a dramatic drop. It hurts, but it's the way things are before things settle.
I have a feeling that by this time next year, those who weathered the storm will be sitting in a much better situation reaping the rewards of a more stable and steady growing market.
What are your thoughts? Is this a buying opportunity for you? What do you think will happen as the year goes on? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below and If you do have any questions, inputs, or feedback, please also share those with me. I would also appreciate support in the form of Upvoting, Following, and Re-steeming my post if you found it informative
