Is Crypto dying or just dropping for the moment?

[Jarhyn]

Another company pauses withdrawals It is a "smaller" one with only 500 clienteles, allegedly valued at $2 billion back in May.

Bitcoin keeps trying to recover the last few days, but it is trending downward and is fishing dangerously close to a notable psychological point of $20,000.

With all these failures, does anyone believe that someone out there is legitimately buying at slightly over $20K? I still suspect that there is some kind of artificial prop-up going on.

Well, here's the thing: you still need to buy bitcoins to buy drugs at scale without risk or trust.

 

[Artemus]

Another company pauses withdrawals It is a "smaller" one with only 500 clienteles, allegedly valued at $2 billion back in May.

Bitcoin keeps trying to recover the last few days, but it is trending downward and is fishing dangerously close to a notable psychological point of $20,000.

With all these failures, does anyone believe that someone out there is legitimately buying at slightly over $20K? I still suspect that there is some kind of artificial prop-up going on.

Well, here's the thing: you still need to buy bitcoins to buy drugs at scale without risk or trust.

Hasn't that moved to Monero since Bitcoin proved to be too trackable?

 

[Jarhyn]

Another company pauses withdrawals It is a "smaller" one with only 500 clienteles, allegedly valued at $2 billion back in May.

Bitcoin keeps trying to recover the last few days, but it is trending downward and is fishing dangerously close to a notable psychological point of $20,000.

With all these failures, does anyone believe that someone out there is legitimately buying at slightly over $20K? I still suspect that there is some kind of artificial prop-up going on.

Well, here's the thing: you still need to buy bitcoins to buy drugs at scale without risk or trust.

Hasn't that moved to Monero since Bitcoin proved to be too trackable?

How do you think Monero is purchased? People buy bitcoins and process an atomic swap for Monero. They need immediate coins and are going to buy the coins that are out there, if only to swap them off ASAP. Then the coins go back round the ringer and hopefully don't depreciate too much to make the swap providers quit. Granted this allows dealers to use the swap to get clear currency, and the laundry process is then complete almost seemlessly, owing ironically enough to the "losses" on running swap.

You still need a coin you can buy easy enough and Bitcoin is where it's at currently. FDIC orgs won't touch Monero because no traceability.

 

[Artemus]

Another company pauses withdrawals It is a "smaller" one with only 500 clienteles, allegedly valued at $2 billion back in May.

Bitcoin keeps trying to recover the last few days, but it is trending downward and is fishing dangerously close to a notable psychological point of $20,000.

With all these failures, does anyone believe that someone out there is legitimately buying at slightly over $20K? I still suspect that there is some kind of artificial prop-up going on.

Well, here's the thing: you still need to buy bitcoins to buy drugs at scale without risk or trust.

Hasn't that moved to Monero since Bitcoin proved to be too trackable?

How do you think Monero is purchased? People buy bitcoins and process an atomic swap for Monero. They need immediate coins and are going to buy the coins that are out there, if only to swap them off ASAP. Then the coins go back round the ringer and hopefully don't depreciate too much to make the swap providers quit. Granted this allows dealers to use the swap to get clear currency, and the laundry process is then complete almost seemlessly, owing ironically enough to the "losses" on running swap.

OK, makes sense. Trading fake money for fake money at the hope you can trade it for real money at some point. Yet another reason to hope that the whole thing collapses.

ETA: And if most Bitcoin is bought with Tether there is yet another layer. And then with Tether not what it claimed to be, the whole thing is balanced on an essentially nonexistent foundation. What a joke.

 

[Jarhyn]

Another company pauses withdrawals It is a "smaller" one with only 500 clienteles, allegedly valued at $2 billion back in May.

Bitcoin keeps trying to recover the last few days, but it is trending downward and is fishing dangerously close to a notable psychological point of $20,000.

With all these failures, does anyone believe that someone out there is legitimately buying at slightly over $20K? I still suspect that there is some kind of artificial prop-up going on.

Well, here's the thing: you still need to buy bitcoins to buy drugs at scale without risk or trust.

Hasn't that moved to Monero since Bitcoin proved to be too trackable?

How do you think Monero is purchased? People buy bitcoins and process an atomic swap for Monero. They need immediate coins and are going to buy the coins that are out there, if only to swap them off ASAP. Then the coins go back round the ringer and hopefully don't depreciate too much to make the swap providers quit. Granted this allows dealers to use the swap to get clear currency, and the laundry process is then complete almost seemlessly, owing ironically enough to the "losses" on running swap.

OK, makes sense. Trading fake money for fake money at the hope you can trade it for real money at some point. Yet another reason to hope that the whole thing collapses.

More, trading in one fake money because banks sell it and it can be trustlessly, banklessly swapped for another fake currency that can be traded trustlessly, banklessly, and anonymously, and as a seller in this market of drugs, you:

Keep a supply of bitcoins and sell them at market rate to finance immediate supply chain payment and cost of living (small loss, usually).

Swap Monero for Bitcoin. This is how you get cash (see above).

Swap Drugs for Monero. This is how you get Bitcoin (see above).

If done in this way, the drug dealer suffers no exposure as all their gains of Bitcoin can be from "selling NFTs" or whatever. Assuming that their swap engine launders the purchase of an NFT with the shared Bitcoin txid, they are invisible tax-wise. Their business is apparently entirely legitimate and they have a real product, and it's DRUGS.

They can even resell the NFT to some pharmabro or whatever and make more money.

*I have never actually done this. I just figured it out because I'm a heck of a reverse engineer. I realized parts of the whole structure... Well, while I was writing the post.

There are probably other transactions that can be milled from crypto "sale", but it essentially amounts to "launder the XMR sale with some other crypto sale to the BTC."

I keep saying this, cryptocurrency discussions are fundamentally discussions about the drug trade and it is... Frankly quite shocking that so few people understand this.

It's just that in addition to the drugs thing, people started legitimately speculating and the speculation... Obscures the drug market even further.

 

[Jarhyn]

Honestly, if the drug war ended, cryptocurrency would just pop like a fart bubble in the bath.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I just assumed drugs were sold via Amazon with those third-party seller products with obscene prices.

 

[Jarhyn]

I just assumed drugs were sold via Amazon with those third-party seller products with obscene prices.

Nope. They are sold on darknet markets, for Monero, often in wholesale quantities. Bitcoin is just the surface that trades on.

And then they just anonymously sell the shit coins they bought from themselves for their own Bitcoin they got at the same time as they sold their monero off again, to some real sucker who just saw Shitcoins selling for a Bitcoin a piece or whatever. NFTs upgrade the scheme because they can be minted without rolling a new Blockchain.

Those bitcoins came from selling Monero, not from the Shitcoins. Or from Ethereum. Or whatever dirty money the market operates on. That's the point of the Bitcoin. To be the publicly useful patsy for... That. And the Shitcoins or NFTs are just the digital pollution, the "clean book" over the dirty.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Crypto Hedge Fund looking for help.

Cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd is exploring options, including the sale of assets and a bailout by another firm, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The crypto market has suffered heavy losses, with companies such as Coinbase, Gemini, Blockfi and Crypto.com laying off thousands of employees, as investors sell risky assets in a rising interest rate environment.

On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that Three Arrows Capital failed to meet margin calls last weekend.

The 10-year-old hedge fund, founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, has hired legal and financial advisers to help work out a solution for investors and lenders, according to the Wall Street Journal, which quoted the founders

The trouble here is when your assets are funny money which has a dubious basis for value, that has got to be difficult for people with actual money to want to invest in them.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I just assumed drugs were sold via Amazon with those third-party seller products with obscene prices.

Nope. They are sold on darknet markets, for Monero, often in wholesale quantities. Bitcoin is just the surface that trades on.

And then they just anonymously sell the shit coins they bought from themselves for their own Bitcoin they got at the same time as they sold their monero off again, to some real sucker who just saw Shitcoins selling for a Bitcoin a piece or whatever. NFTs upgrade the scheme because they can be minted without rolling a new Blockchain.

Those bitcoins came from selling Monero, not from the Shitcoins. Or from Ethereum. Or whatever dirty money the market operates on. That's the point of the Bitcoin. To be the publicly useful patsy for... That. And the Shitcoins or NFTs are just the digital pollution, the "clean book" over the dirty.

Are you saying the NFT of the Pet Rock I invested $10,000 in was worthless?

 

[Jarhyn]

Oh, I'm sure it was worth 10k to the drug dealer who sold your bitcoins, in addition to the 5k bitcoins they "bought" it for ("100% appreciation check it out!") That they got when they sold 5k worth in bitcoins worth in Monero of cocaine.

That's an easy 15k for a 5k Brick of cocaine.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Oh, I'm sure it was worth 10k to the drug dealer who sold your bitcoins, in addition to the 5k bitcoins they "bought" it for ("100% appreciation check it out!") That they got when they sold 5k worth in bitcoins worth in Monero of cocaine.

That's an easy 15k for a 5k Brick of cocaine.

Oh thank goodness!

 

[Jarhyn]

Oh, I'm sure it was worth 10k to the drug dealer who sold your bitcoins, in addition to the 5k bitcoins they "bought" it for ("100% appreciation check it out!") That they got when they sold 5k worth in bitcoins worth in Monero of cocaine.

That's an easy 15k for a 5k Brick of cocaine.

Oh thank goodness!

You probably would have been better off buying their cocaine though instead.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Oh, I'm sure it was worth 10k to the drug dealer who sold your bitcoins, in addition to the 5k bitcoins they "bought" it for ("100% appreciation check it out!") That they got when they sold 5k worth in bitcoins worth in Monero of cocaine.

That's an easy 15k for a 5k Brick of cocaine.

Oh thank goodness!

You probably would have been better off buying their cocaine though instead.

 

[Artemus]

Something big must have cashed out at just before 3 AM EDT this morning. Everything listed on coindesk.com instantly dropped 8% at that time. Maybe a failed DeFi liquidated then?

 

[Jarhyn]

Something big must have cashed out at just before 3 AM EDT this morning. Everything listed on coindesk.com instantly dropped 8% at that time. Maybe a failed DeFi liquidated then?

When was it that BTC passed the psychological line below 20k? They might be related.

 

[Artemus]

Something big must have cashed out at just before 3 AM EDT this morning. Everything listed on coindesk.com instantly dropped 8% at that time. Maybe a failed DeFi liquidated then?

When was it that BTC passed the psychological line below 20k? They might be related.

That was the instant it went from ~20.5 K to ~19.2 K.

 

[Jarhyn]

Something big must have cashed out at just before 3 AM EDT this morning. Everything listed on coindesk.com instantly dropped 8% at that time. Maybe a failed DeFi liquidated then?

When was it that BTC passed the psychological line below 20k? They might be related.

That was the instant it went from ~20.5 K to ~19.2 K.

Ah... There was a .5 k buffer in 20k to sell "early" but everyone sold right at that boundary point and everyone's 20k stop loss triggered simultaneously.

People expecting the downturn caused a Tinkerbell effect on the predictable boundary condition.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Meanwhile, Celsius sounds like they are on stable ground with the "pausing" of their "Twitter space".

We are pausing our Twitter Spaces and AMAs to focus on navigating these unprecedented challenges and seeking to fulfill our responsibilities to our community.

Acting in the interest of our community remains our priority and we will continue to work around the clock.

Nothing settles investors concerns as well as saying "we aren't talking anymore to our investors."

Bitcoin fell to $17,700 over the weekend, but "recovered" to $20,600 as of now.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Something big must have cashed out at just before 3 AM EDT this morning. Everything listed on coindesk.com instantly dropped 8% at that time. Maybe a failed DeFi liquidated then?

The thing I found interesting looking at Bitcoin's chart was that there was virtually no connection between trade volume and Bitcoin value. The volume of Bitcoin seemed relatively cyclical. Bitcoin went up, around the same. Massive crash, about the same.