Everybody's Worried About Bitcoin Crash Except Bitcoin and the Market Itself
TechnologyBit News Today2 min read
The cryptocurrency market has seen another period of sharp falls. That's no surprise. But there's a confounding mismatch between what the price data shows and the panicky headline stories that are everywhere these days. ## The Market? Calm.
This speaks to a flight to apparent safety and a discounting of altcoins overall. Even looking at altcoins alone, there's nothing to suggest a generalized selloff, with a number of the larger projects showing slight gains. The market has not seen any contribution to volatility from unusual trading volumes. ## Bitcoin? Strong.
Perhaps most strikingly, Bitcoin has shown particular strength, even as it has dropped in dollar terms. Look at the dollar value it takes to buy a single Bitcoin - it's down a considerable amount from highs of early 2018. But look at the bitcoins you get for your dollar and the story is very different - even with the recent drop, you get more bitcoins today for your dollar than you did in early 2018.
Of course, this is a very specific period, picked because it shows Bitcoin in a favorable light. But the important point is that Bitcoin's selloff in dollar terms doesn't mean the Bitcoin market is in freefall - it just means Bitcoin is losing its dominance over the general public's perception of cryptocurrency. ## The News, Panicking
The odd thing is that news coverage, and public perception, seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Headlines talk of a "freefall", a "crash", a "bubble bursting". But none of this is reflected in the actual market. Altcoin activity is down, sure, but it's not a freefall. Altcoin price is not in a freefall. Bitcoin itself has, by any measure, had a drop but not a collapse. This is not to say Bitcoin's price drop is insignificant - it's just not newsworthy. ## What's Next
If Bitcoin is heading for a crash, then this crash is supposed to have already happened. In fact, the problem may be that the crash has happened, in that the price drop has drawn out a lot of the altcoin-pumping, or at least a lot of it from public-facing folks. In fact, the crash hasn't left Bitcoin down by so much, it's just brought it to a more stable level. If anything, it's the end of the crash.
