Bitcoin is in free fall. Within a few minutes its price dropped by over 15%. Over the last month or so its value had been fairly stable at between £4,700 and £5,000. Not now, the last time I looked it was heading towards the £4,200 mark. It’s price may go up, it may go down or indeed it may stay the same. No one knows.
I’m not that bothered but very interested. I came into the market just before bitcoin’s meteoric rise and sold off enough to pay back what I spent. My holding, therefore, doesn’t owe me anything. I may get some pangs if it loses all its value but it will be money that I never had and so will get over it.
Indeed my interest in buying into bitcoin was fueled by a desire to know more about blockchain than by financial gain. Free money is never that satisfying anyway.
What has become patently apparent to me however is the automated nature of the bitcoin market. I may be naive as to the amount of machine driven trading that goes on in the other money markets but it stands out like a sore thumb with bitcoin. The price runs along with minor variation for a while, just like the stock market. It can be happy for minutes, days or even weeks and then suddenly it jumps, up or down.
Because of the time it takes for an individual to transact a coin, such market movement, in my view, is not possible. It can only be machine driven. There must be algorithms that say sell when and buy when and I suspect that huge amounts of money are being made by some and lost by many.
I just can’t compete with this but then again, I’m not that bothered. It is all very interesting.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 