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One of the supposed benefits of holding cryptocurrency that has been peddled is that it is a strong hedge against a down turn in traditional securities. Here we

One of the supposed benefits of holding cryptocurrency that has been peddled is that it is a strong hedge against a down turn in traditional securities. Here we have a new, real data point to the contrary.

zionic 7y ago
I still think this is true in a "traditional" bear market where companies are doing poorly. I don't think is applies when the entire market is panic selling to acquire supplies.
- wgjordan 7y ago
  This is the first bear market (drop of 20% from a recent peak in broad-based index) Bitcoin or the crypto-currency market has ever seen, 'traditional' or not, so it's really uncharted territory.
  - allovernow 7y ago
    This. Everyone is speaking so authoritatively as though they knew crypto was not a hedge. This is the first real such test that crypto has seen. Yes, it appears to have failed, but no one could have predicted this with any certainty.
    - OGWhales 7y ago
      Looking at the leveraged trading, which is generally controlling the price of the market in crypto… you see the large majority of people went long and lost big on it. Very few went short. To me it seems much more likely the large exchanges just dumped in order to make a killing off the leveraged longs. So in short people did actually believe in it as a shore of wealth and exchanges manipulated this belief in order to selfishly profit. This isn’t something that was easy to predict, my comment is obviously a reflection of what happened today but I think it’s the most logical explanation.
  - nicky0 7y ago
    Bitcoin has experienced large price crashes several times before.
    - 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
      None correlated to stock market crashes though.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
Since almost nobody is using Bitcoin to pay for things it’s just a giant speculative thing. It’s not a safe haven.
- flashman 7y ago
  People are using bitcoin to pay for cash, and vice versa. Besides drugs, that's its primary purpose.
  - tehlike 7y ago
    What's the payment volume ;)
krick 7y ago
If you mean the OPEC thing: this really is a wild guess, I'm not convinced in the least. And insane volatility of Bitcoin is old news, anybody who said otherwise obviously never looked at the trading charts in his whole life. In fact, it's volatility is the main real reason it's interesting to the majority of BTC users: they only need it to speculate. Nobody really buys anything for BTC. And other cryptocurrencies are still very much tied to BTC, so when BTCUSD falls dramatically, they do as well.
baby 7y ago
it's all correlated and the correlation to link them all is human emotion.
spir 7y ago
Many of us in the cryptocurrency community always knew this wasn't true. Unfortunately it's a misconception that was long and frequently advertised as recently as last week.

zionic 7y ago

I still think this is true in a "traditional" bear market where companies are doing poorly. I don't think is applies when the entire market is panic selling to acquire supplies.

wgjordan 7y ago
This is the first bear market (drop of 20% from a recent peak in broad-based index) Bitcoin or the crypto-currency market has ever seen, 'traditional' or not, so it's really uncharted territory.
- allovernow 7y ago
  This. Everyone is speaking so authoritatively as though they knew crypto was not a hedge. This is the first real such test that crypto has seen. Yes, it appears to have failed, but no one could have predicted this with any certainty.
  - OGWhales 7y ago
    Looking at the leveraged trading, which is generally controlling the price of the market in crypto… you see the large majority of people went long and lost big on it. Very few went short. To me it seems much more likely the large exchanges just dumped in order to make a killing off the leveraged longs. So in short people did actually believe in it as a shore of wealth and exchanges manipulated this belief in order to selfishly profit. This isn’t something that was easy to predict, my comment is obviously a reflection of what happened today but I think it’s the most logical explanation.
- nicky0 7y ago
  Bitcoin has experienced large price crashes several times before.
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
    None correlated to stock market crashes though.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

Since almost nobody is using Bitcoin to pay for things it’s just a giant speculative thing. It’s not a safe haven.

flashman 7y ago
People are using bitcoin to pay for cash, and vice versa. Besides drugs, that's its primary purpose.
- tehlike 7y ago
  What's the payment volume ;)

krick 7y ago

If you mean the OPEC thing: this really is a wild guess, I'm not convinced in the least. And insane volatility of Bitcoin is old news, anybody who said otherwise obviously never looked at the trading charts in his whole life. In fact, it's volatility is the main real reason it's interesting to the majority of BTC users: they only need it to speculate. Nobody really buys anything for BTC. And other cryptocurrencies are still very much tied to BTC, so when BTCUSD falls dramatically, they do as well.

baby 7y ago

it's all correlated and the correlation to link them all is human emotion.

spir 7y ago

Many of us in the cryptocurrency community always knew this wasn't true. Unfortunately it's a misconception that was long and frequently advertised as recently as last week.