[sd_mikey]

My guess is that the there are a lot of newbies now on Coinbase (#1 app in the Apple AppStore). They are buying the cheapest “bitcoin” without actually understanding what they are buying. This has increased demand for the cheaper of the only three options in Coinbase thus increasing price.

[sidlls]

Yes, and I've cashed out handsomely as a result of being lucky enough to predict exactly this.

For clarification: I bought some $1000s worth of LTC when it was under $100 shortly after the Futures news hit. It was pure gamble on my part and I could have easily lost instead of the other way around.

I also bought a few ETH coins when it was around $400 but haven't cashed those out yet. I'm predicting my LTC gains will be wiped by ETH losses.

[kss238]

Eth is at $630 right now, so unless I'm misunderstanding something, you'll have made money.

[sidlls]

Can't sell it because not all my coins are in my account yet, and no guarantee there won't be a rush to sell due to instability.

[make3]

christ you must have made ridiculous money with this

[sidlls]

Well, ridiculous in the sense that the whole phenomenon is absurd or relatively to what some people earn in a year, sure.

But I only made about 2.5x my wager, which wasn't much (less than $10000, more than $1000).

Also, as noted, much of a LTC gains could easily be eaten up by ETH losses. BTC is too expensive for my gambling taste.

[jeffwass]

To me, this kind of comment drives home the insanity of the crypto craze right now.

Complaints of "only" making a 2.5x return.

Or proposed strategies elsewhere in this thread of buying a coin, selling half "when" it doubles, not "if".

[sidlls]

I wasn't complaining. The "only" was in response to suggesting I made "huge" amounts of profit. I didn't gamble that much, and so I didn't make that much even with the return. My profit was less than my paycheck. 2.5x is better than anything I've ever made in equities (in fairness 90% of my strategy there is selling covered calls on dividend paying stocks) and far and away my best gamble on a percentage return basis. I doubt I'll ever be as lucky as that again.

But I agree it does highlight how insane the crypto craze is.

[kombucha2]

I locked in gains with LTC a few weeks ago like a rube thinking there was going to be a correction :( Locked in some good gains but missed on 70 thou plus USD....sigh...gotta keep trying though right?

[sidlls]

That isn't the way to look at it. Suppose LTC breaks $1000, or even $500. I'll have "missed out" on a lot. But I locked in gains, so I'm net ahead. Timing gambling like this is a fool's errand, in my view.

[kombucha2]

100 pc agree, it's hard not to fall into the FOMO trap.

[eliben]

If this* isn't the very definition of a public bubble, I don't know what is :)

* Neophytes buying whatever they can put their hands on, because... mania

[jawilson2]

This is supported by the fact that there is $50-$100 difference between gdax/coinbase and other exchanges. This happened with BTC last week too: on gdax the price hit ~$19000, and remained close to $15000 on the others, before reverting.

[kss238]

Before this latest gain, Korean exchanges were consistently priced 5-10% higher than all others. Now it's reversed. I don't think it signals anything.

[ktta]

I think there's a more nefarious reason. Some guys with deep pockets buying just to increase the price. I want to call it pump and dump, but same happened to bitcoin and it's still afloat.

[yeukhon]

> They are buying the cheapest “bitcoin” without actually understanding what they are buying.

I doubt people really understand what they are buying whether it's bitcoin or litecoin. If you think you do, well, then most people do. Don't look at "crytocurrency" as the future "payment method", invest it like an asset. Go in low, come out high.

I invested in litecoin because I believe the market is undervalued. It's like a blue chip but will continue to rise for a while. If litecoin is to continue to rise, my bet is stopping at 600 then stabilized until bitcoin pops again. Litecoin in my view will never pass Bitcoin, but it's nonetheless a fun investment to play with.

[raes]

Could you explain for someone not in to crypto?