| | | what's to keep your Bitcoins from vanishing into the volcano the way that the they did for thousands of clients of the world's biggest bitcoin exchange when it collapsed
This is my biggest concern with my own crypto holdings. If you screw up a transfer or a trade order, it's possible you send all your crypto to someone else who says "thanks" and vanishes into the cloud, with your Bitcoin.
And it seems easier to steal that normal money. If thieves know that some guy has $20 million in Bitcoin with access to it from his more PC or phone, why not go rob him? Once he sends the crypto out of his account, it's basically gone.
As for exchanges crashing, I suppose similar stuff happened with banks when money got rolling in new countries, but yes, losing all your crypto in an exchange bankruptcy/technological implosion is also a concern.
I think that's part of the trade off for no central control of the money. No one entity can destroy your money the way the ZImbabwe central bank destroyed their buying printing too much, but also, there's no central authority guaranteeing your capital in the case of theft or exchange crash.
My hunch is Bitcoin is rising so much just due to buyers overwhelming sellers. It sounds too easy, but think about it. Who sells Bitcoin? Current owners, who want profit (they think the rise is over?? Why), and day traders. Who buys Bitcoin, every current owner who has made lots of money and so wants to own more, and every new Bitcoin investor on the planet. The latter group is much much bigger than the seller group, so that pushed Bitcoin eternally higher. Most of our friends own zero Bitcoin, and plenty of them have surplus cash to invest ..... somewhere. Each year a few of those newbies learn about Bitcoin, and buy a bit, and that money flow dwarfs the current owners who want to sell.
And maybe institutional money is entering the space, I don't know.
The multi-year chart looks good! |
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