4 ms·

Bitcoin plunges as much as 20 percent as Chinese yuan soars

39 points by artsandsci 10y ago

j_koreth 10y ago
This large change based on another currency may paint a dark picture in its future as a stable cryptocurrency
- modeless 10y ago
  Actually, as Bitcoin's value and "market cap" has increased it has become more stable. The current fluctuations are small compared to what used to happen. If the value continues to go up (it is still up 30% over 30 days), stability is likely to increase as well. If not, it won't. I'd also like to point out that "real" currencies experience large fluctuations sometimes too, despite their much larger "market cap". The pound, the Swiss franc, and the ruble have all seen large fluctuations in recent years. And of course there have been many cases of hyperinflation in the past and we have a current one in Venezuela.
DoodleBuggy 10y ago
What a stable store of value!
- 27182818284 10y ago
  No, you shouldn't put your lifesavings in it, but as others have pointed out, the Dow has gone down %5 and up %5 in the same day.
  - DoodleBuggy 10y ago
    Down another 10% today, stable as ever!
zik 10y ago
There's been a bit of an unusual spike of about 30% in the last couple of weeks due to a sudden influx of Chinese investors. Now it's returning to something closer to its normal value.
21 10y ago
I think all financial journalists should be required to trade real money for a year. Then we'll stop seeing these bullshit causations. Bitcoin's today drop was nothing else than a normal reaction after the incredible recent runup. If gold surged today instead of the yuan, the article would have stated that gold was the reason. I remember a day during the hectic days of the 2008 meltdown, when in a single day DOW dropped 5%, but ended 5% up (thus a 10% swing). In that day I've seen two articles in the same source, with titles like this "Dow plunges on Fed decision", later "Dow surges on (same) Fed decision", instead of a more realistic "the market is crazy because everybody is scared shitless"
- RaptorJ 10y ago
  it cant be that hard to write the "Dow volatility increases on Fed decision" article
  - kristofferR 10y ago
    A lot of financial articles like that are actually written by bots now.
- eridius 10y ago
  AIUI there's been a lot of speculation lately that the price of bitcoin was propped up by Chinese investors, so if bitcoin drops 20% at the same time that the Chinese yuan soars, I don't think it's much of a leap to speculate that the former was caused by the latter.
  - 21 10y ago
    I have a question for you. Have you ever traded? This is not meant as an insult. Just for scale, yuan soared 1% today, bitcoin dropped 20%. Yes, I know there is leverage in the forex markets. But more importantly, compared to the yuan market, bitcoin is a spit in the bucket ($300 bln yuan daily volume vs whatever the bitcoin daily volume is) What you're (or the article) is basically saying is that the investors which were into bitcoin wet themselves today by the amazing yuan soar and suddenly decided to move theirs money from bitcoin to the yuan, even if these two are completely different financial things (even if both are named currencies), and one who invests into bitcoin does so for completely different reasons than one investing into the yuan.
jwtadvice2 10y ago
I tend to agree with the "bitcoin experts" that: > But many bitcoin experts say Chinese exchanges overstate their volumes in the digital currency, and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds. China's attempt to depeg their currency from the dollar, protect it from economic warfare, and jump the middle income gap is fascinating. It would be titivating if bitcoin movements were very integrated with capital flight from China. But as it stands this is merely a rumor, and we'd need a lot more evidence to establish that claim.
empath75 10y ago
When you start seeing posts from people who aren't into cryptocurrencies talking about buying bitcoin, that's when you sell bitcoin.
- zeroer 10y ago
  Yea, but I saw that years ago.
jpatokal 10y ago
There was one (1) trade at $881. At time of typing, BTC is above $1000 again, meaning it's back to the value it had in the dim antiquity of Jan 3rd, 2017. https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/coinbase/btcusd https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/coinbase/btcusd
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

39 points by artsandsci 10y ago

j_koreth 10y ago

This large change based on another currency may paint a dark picture in its future as a stable cryptocurrency

modeless 10y ago
Actually, as Bitcoin's value and "market cap" has increased it has become more stable. The current fluctuations are small compared to what used to happen. If the value continues to go up (it is still up 30% over 30 days), stability is likely to increase as well. If not, it won't. I'd also like to point out that "real" currencies experience large fluctuations sometimes too, despite their much larger "market cap". The pound, the Swiss franc, and the ruble have all seen large fluctuations in recent years. And of course there have been many cases of hyperinflation in the past and we have a current one in Venezuela.

DoodleBuggy 10y ago

What a stable store of value!

27182818284 10y ago
No, you shouldn't put your lifesavings in it, but as others have pointed out, the Dow has gone down %5 and up %5 in the same day.
- DoodleBuggy 10y ago
  Down another 10% today, stable as ever!

zik 10y ago

There's been a bit of an unusual spike of about 30% in the last couple of weeks due to a sudden influx of Chinese investors. Now it's returning to something closer to its normal value.

21 10y ago

I think all financial journalists should be required to trade real money for a year. Then we'll stop seeing these bullshit causations. Bitcoin's today drop was nothing else than a normal reaction after the incredible recent runup. If gold surged today instead of the yuan, the article would have stated that gold was the reason. I remember a day during the hectic days of the 2008 meltdown, when in a single day DOW dropped 5%, but ended 5% up (thus a 10% swing). In that day I've seen two articles in the same source, with titles like this "Dow plunges on Fed decision", later "Dow surges on (same) Fed decision", instead of a more realistic "the market is crazy because everybody is scared shitless"

RaptorJ 10y ago
it cant be that hard to write the "Dow volatility increases on Fed decision" article
- kristofferR 10y ago
  A lot of financial articles like that are actually written by bots now.
eridius 10y ago
AIUI there's been a lot of speculation lately that the price of bitcoin was propped up by Chinese investors, so if bitcoin drops 20% at the same time that the Chinese yuan soars, I don't think it's much of a leap to speculate that the former was caused by the latter.
- 21 10y ago
  I have a question for you. Have you ever traded? This is not meant as an insult. Just for scale, yuan soared 1% today, bitcoin dropped 20%. Yes, I know there is leverage in the forex markets. But more importantly, compared to the yuan market, bitcoin is a spit in the bucket ($300 bln yuan daily volume vs whatever the bitcoin daily volume is) What you're (or the article) is basically saying is that the investors which were into bitcoin wet themselves today by the amazing yuan soar and suddenly decided to move theirs money from bitcoin to the yuan, even if these two are completely different financial things (even if both are named currencies), and one who invests into bitcoin does so for completely different reasons than one investing into the yuan.

jwtadvice2 10y ago

I tend to agree with the "bitcoin experts" that: > But many bitcoin experts say Chinese exchanges overstate their volumes in the digital currency, and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds. China's attempt to depeg their currency from the dollar, protect it from economic warfare, and jump the middle income gap is fascinating. It would be titivating if bitcoin movements were very integrated with capital flight from China. But as it stands this is merely a rumor, and we'd need a lot more evidence to establish that claim.

empath75 10y ago

When you start seeing posts from people who aren't into cryptocurrencies talking about buying bitcoin, that's when you sell bitcoin.

zeroer 10y ago
Yea, but I saw that years ago.

jpatokal 10y ago

There was one (1) trade at $881. At time of typing, BTC is above $1000 again, meaning it's back to the value it had in the dim antiquity of Jan 3rd, 2017. https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/coinbase/btcusd https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/coinbase/btcusd

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]