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Last I Checked SBD was Trading at $12.53 on Bittrex!
Blooming cactus
Of course, I could just leave this alone and celebrate (along with a bunch of other people) that the Steem "twin" currency has gone to the moon.
But something about this strikes me as a little weird.
Or, at the very least, it points to a flaw/miscalculation in the Steemit system.
As best I understand it, Steem Dollars (SBD) isn't even a "real" cryptocurrency. What I mean by that is that Steem is the official cryptocurrency around here, while SBD is merely a form of "internal settlement currency" used to pay the "cash" version of our rewards.
Also, "as I best understand it," SBD is supposedly pegged to US dollars at a 1-to-1 ratio. And it has been like that (with minor fluctuations) for the entire ten months I have been on Steemit.
Until about November 21st...
Then a Funny Thing Happened
Mint blossoms
On November 21st, but Steem and SBD started ticking up, rather sharply. Of course, November 21st was also the day Korea's UpBit cryptocurrency exchange listed Steem and SBD for trading, for the first time.
Maybe that's coincidence, maybe not.
But it has been pretty much "off to the races" for both Steem and Steem dollars since November 21st, with the most spectacular spikes happening over the last few days.
Noteworthy in this picture is the fact not only the prices are up, but the trading volume is many times the average over the preceding 4-5 months.
Mistaken Identity?
Purple heather
As I step back and look at the skyrocketing price of SBD-- and the fact that almost the entire issued supply is "churning" on a daily basis (the last 24 hours' worth of trading on Bittrex alone was US $32 million+!), maybe this whole thing isn't really so much a "pump and dump" as a case of mistaken identity.
Maybe a whole bunch of these trades are being done by people who are not even familiar with Steemit... they just see a coin on an exchange, and start trading it.
And because SBD has a small supply, it's super easy to run up the price.
Think about it: there's only about 3.6 million SBD in circulation. At 1-to-1 with US dollars, that's only $3.6 million. That's pretty modest, and it wouldn't take a whole lot of speculating by day traders to set that going... without any of them even knowing that it's our internal rewards currency, here.
Just something to think about.
Another thing to think about: Is the fact that SBD is traded on external exchanges inherently a problem when it comes to trying to keep the value of SBD at $1.00? There's no control over what external traders can do...
What do YOU think? Is this spike in SBD caused by a case of "mistaken identity" that has little to do with Steemit? Do you think someone is trying to manipulate the market? Or is this just a case of FOMO among people who aren't connected to the site? Do you think we've seen the highs in the SBD price? Do you think it will ever go back down to $1, like it was intended? Leave a comment-- share your opinions and input-- be part of the conversation!
Have at it! I want to hear from you-- and others want to hear from you, as well! Share your thoughts and experiences below! And remember... the purpose of the Daily Discussion initiative is to interact, and however little or large your contribution might be, it does matter!
If you write an entire post as a response, remember to use the tag #dailydiscussion and include "Daily Discussion No. 6" as part of your title, then share a link to your post in the comment section!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 171208 17:20 PDT