Oh, Not Again!
This Monday, we again wake up to a red-colored crypto market. At first, when I saw the red colors, I thought, "Hmmm, close that app, go outside and enjoy the summer. Crypto is on its ass again!". I didn't immediately feel thrilled. Until I started thinking. We all know this if we take the time to think about it. Crypto is not a "Get-rich-overnight" game. Crypto is not a "short-term" game. Crypto is not a miracle cure to get rich quickly. That may have been the case once if you were lucky. But in general, crypto is just a serious investment, where you have to be patient, pay close attention to what you are doing, and even 'work' hard to increase your investment, where you also have to learn how to deal with what crypto is. Where you have to invest time to learn about the fundamental principles of crypto and the technology behind it. Where you have to learn how crypto works, and that is no easy task because every crypto has its things, as a potential investor you have to know what you are getting into, why are you getting into it, what appeals to you, and is it realistic to expect a price increase? Who is behind it and what is it driven by? What is the track record of the person/people who launched that particular crypto? So many questions that you can, and should, ask yourself BEFORE you decide to invest in it. Forget those dollar signs in your eyes, it is not true that if you invest 1000 dollars today you can have 10000 dollars in your bank account tomorrow. It is a long road with trial and error. Many obstacles that have to be overcome, and the only way you get to that finish line is by having patience and trust. And that patience and trust, you can only muster if you have done your homework and understand what you are doing.
Got My Thinking-Cap On
These thoughts went through my mind while drinking a cup of tea. And once I got into that thought pattern, I started thinking even more deeply. Because in my almost seven-year 'crypto career,' I have already experienced the necessary peaks and valleys. And of course also the necessary FUD. Let me put it differently. I am one of the many who ended up in crypto by pure coincidence without any knowledge. And it took a while before I started to delve deeper into crypto. I ended up on Steemit as a possibility to earn some money by writing blogs. That was the only thing that mattered to me, and also the only thing I knew at that moment. Bitcoin was a far-fetched idea. That there was more crypto than Bitcoin only dawned on me when I was in the middle of it. Only when the bear hit in 2018 did I slowly start learning more about crypto, about the technology, about the cycles. I had missed the bull of 2017, but I felt the bear very clearly. By learning about crypto I was able to maintain confidence for a long time, it was difficult, but I succeeded. And despite the many deep valleys and the feeling that crypto was dead, it came back to life. The bull run came and all the pain was quickly forgotten. My portfolio rose to values that I had not thought possible. Unfortunately, I had not learned enough yet, and I quickly lost sight of reality. I forgot that every bull run also ends quickly enough, and so I only remained virtually 'rich'. The reality was that I still did not have a cent to spend and my crypto portfolio, which showed a nice dollar value, finally collapsed. And with the collapse of my portfolio, my confidence also seemed to collapse again. Does this sound familiar to you?
It's Nonsense!
Now let's list why the collapse of confidence is nonsense. For years, the crypto market has been plagued by negative stories that crypto will go to zero. Negative stories have been circulating for years that all crypto will completely collapse. That crypto is a bubble. We even came up with a special term for all negativity. FUD. Do you remember what FUD stands for? Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. But what has now turned out to be true of all this FUD?
FUD Debunked!
For years, and even now, there have been people who keep claiming that the price of Bitcoin / Crypto is all fake. According to them, it is all 'learned insights' due to Wash Trading, and there is certainly no one who buys Bitcoin.
The people who believe that have been confronted with the facts by the arrival of the ETFs. The figures of these ETFs clearly show that there is a REAL demand for Bitcoin and also Ethereum. The figures do not lie and the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum is real, and certainly not based on Wash Trading. Too bad for the people who do not want to believe it, but figures do not lie, so the fable of Wash Trading to artificially drive up the price has hereby been debunked. Now I do not want to go so far as to claim that this is for all 15,000+ cryptocurrencies, but I dare say that this will certainly apply to the Top 100. Crypto is real!
Fears
What I can also remember very well is the feeling that I was doing something illegal. And the associated fear that it would be banned worldwide. And with a worldwide ban on crypto, the market would of course collapse completely. This fear was of course fueled by several countries that did indeed impose a ban on crypto, such as China, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Morocco. Russia was also once a strong opponent of it. But what we have seen lately is that Russia is starting to see the advantages and that even China is being a bit more flexible with crypto. And even with the bans that are there, crypto has only grown. The market has not collapsed, on the contrary. More regulation has emerged everywhere, but that has ensured that crypto can certainly no longer be pushed into the corner of illegality. The doomsday scenario of a total global ban on crypto and the associated collapse is gone.
Uncertainty
Then there was the uncertainty of the many frauds. Think of Mt. Gox and later FTX. Before that happened we all lived with the idea that if these exchanges collapsed, it would be over for crypto. And when the collapse happened, the market of course took a big hit. You will never hear me deny that it certainly had an effect, but ... if you zoom out in the charts, then these collapses have been nothing more than a ripple. In the very long term, it has had little effect, and crypto in general has simply continued to grow undisturbed!
The market seems to have learned that even when the largest exchanges fall, crypto just bounces back.
Doubt
Even large sell-offs like Germany recently did, and also the remnants of Mt. Gox had only a minimal impact on the market. We once looked at this with fear. It was seen as a huge threat to the survival of crypto. But when it did, it turned out to be nothing more than a small disruption that was simply swallowed up by a growing market.
Keep The Faith
And when I think back on all this, and realize that crypto survived all this, and ultimately continued to grow, I wonder why my mood should immediately drop below zero when I see today's red numbers. No need, today it's red, soon it will be green again. Crypto does its thing and me? I have to do my thing, stay patient, and keep the faith.