Back in the good old days, it was easy for a small group to manipulate the price of BTC. Today the volume is much higher and it's much harder to control the price of BTC. But I imagine that it isn't that hard for wales to get together and manipulate the price - and therefore get even more BTC. Is there any proof out there that they are still doing this or attempting to do it?

Anyone here that have been in these old groups that used to manipulate BTC? Any stories to tell? I've been in some pump and dump groups, never bought any, but seen proof of market manipulation of small coins. Mostly scam everything in these groups. But I guess good groups exist?

I've read somewhere that it is not that hard to manipulate the BTC price. That it doesn't take huge amount of money to move the price a lot. Is this true?

My two cents for today

Edit: my dyslectic brain have written wales and not whales. Oh well, have fun guys!

I've seen discussions and questions around exchanges and the amount of identification they require, and to paraphrase one answer in another thread, "exchanging cryptos isn't the chokepoint, getting fiat into the market is." By that same token, wouldn't attempting to pull fiat out of the market be subject to the same issue?

There are ways I can anonymously inject fiat into the crypto market, in order to bypass the major exchanges' requirements for identification. But it's a two way street, right? I can't also convert crypto into fiat without needing to bypass the same problem, yes? Or might it be possible that while fiat -> crypto is a chokepoint, the reverse isn't, for some reason?

I've seen some talk about cryptocurrencies lately, accusing some people of coming here just to make money. To make quick money. In fact, everyone knows very well that everyone does this for the sake of money. If it is not for money, who would like to do this, not for a better life in the future, for the early realization of financial freedom!

let me tell you. Yes, most people here are for the money. This is because we are screwed. Society still expects the average male to make a lot of money to support a family, but for the past 15 years or more, people in their 30s have been fooling around, saying men are in their thirties, but few can do it.

No wage growth, no prospects in many countries, ongoing financial crisis hitting us from all sides, and now inflation will melt our savings, which means if we were lucky enough to have any savings in the first place, the education system would be a joke in most countries , heavy debt, high cost of living, rising rents and more. I could go on forever, the news of the Fed raising interest rates I think everyone should know, you think for yourself why you are doing this, I think doing cryptocurrency now is to make sure your savings are not subject to any risk and change .

For many of us, cryptocurrency is the only way out and the only way we will be able to afford a house or villa in the future. So yeah, you bet I'm for the money, I don't care what people think. For me, the number one priority is feeding my family. If you can't even support yourself, what kind of community will you use to support your family after you get married?

Early 2021 was great, wasn't it? BTC - and most of crypto with it - had been on a constant rise for almost a year already without any really major dips - the biggest recent one being from like 40k to 30k in January, from which BTC recovered within weeks, just to keep going up further afterwards.

On April 14, 2021 BTC reached a new ATH - $64,863.10 according to Coinmarketcap - which was not unusual in that phase, BTC reached new ATHs all the time. But I feel like it was the end of a phase, in a way. In the following days, it declined to about 50k, followed by another smaller spike and then a steep and continuous decline to a low below 30k in July.

Don't get me wrong, of course BTC picked up again afterwards, resulting in new ATHs in October and then the current one in November, but to me at least it felt different than the bull run in late 2020 and early 2021. In that first leg of the bull run, so many people were either new to crypto and had never experienced a crash, or had kind of forgotten what a crash looks like as it had been a while - the euphoria and optimism that things would just continue to go up were incredible. The second leg of the run, starting in late July, was great as well, but with the last crash just happening recently and everyone remembering it, people seemed much more aware that it could happen again at any point and the general sentiment, at least in my opinion, never went quite as crazy again.

The bull run of late 2020/early 2021 was the first one I experienced in crypto, and I have fond memories of it. Let's hope we'll see such a crazy run again in the future!

Are you starting to believe?

Up and down. Liquidate bulls then bears

Its been just over two weeks since I updated this series. Not because nothing was happening but because I covered most of it already and didn't want to repeat myself. If you read the main part (10.0) to this weeks ago today wouldn't come as a surprise or what's coming next

The longs are still high and the bottom is still a long ways down. But like a frog in boiling water you got to go slow or it will jump out the pot

The current capitulation price is around ~$38,900

For the uninitiated this is a price point that may lead to a liquidation cascade. In which a massive amount of longs or shorts are triggered rapidly. Generally leading to a flash crash or short squeeze. In traditional markets these event usually occur under very specific circumstances. But in crypto due to stablecoins, CEXs, market makers and low liquidity they are more rampant. Unregulated markets and all that...

I'm aware that Russia has allegedly "defaulted" by attempting to pay in rubles and the current EU situation isn't conducive. China is under lockdown again and Pakistan is in the middle of a political crisis. But I honestly see these as noise. The main issue is unchanged. Its the war!

The crypto markets to me crashed months ago. The invasion of Ukraine should have triggered capitulation but the Market Makers ( Alameda, Cumberland), CEXs ( FTX, Bitfinex, Binance) and Stablecoins ( USDC, USDT) through printing billions and opening and closing positions where able to keep a highly illiquid market afloat. How long this can go on for is based on how much fiat is still available for extraction. Based of that I just saw a guy lose $400k on a long. I can see this going on for some time

The forces now regrouping in the East of Ukraine are possibly going to determine not only the future of Ukraine but possibly the western world. Economically, socially and politically. Overall I see the Ukrainian forces winning the conventional war but the unconventional unfortunately has no winners.