[cableshaft]

This is just: "Don't invest what you aren't prepared to lose," which has been the advice for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for a decade at this point.

The headline makes it sound like they're threatening legal action or some sort of regulation, at least to me.

[SilasX]

Anecdote: my credit union[1] went beyond caution and threatened to close down my account if I interacted with a crypto exchange. From a secured message in June 2017:

>>A transaction has posted to your account involving CoinBase.com (Bitcoin)[2]. Please be advised that in an effort to protect your credit union and all our members, A+FCU does not allow transactions involving CoinBase or any virtual currency. If you attempt to conduct any future transactions involving virtual currency, your account may be subject to closure.

>>Some of the reasons A+FCU has chosen to refuse virtual currency transactions are: - Virtual currencies have a higher risk for fraud. -Virtual currencies have no consumer protections. -Virtual currencies are not backed by a government or central bank. -Virtual currencies are targets for hackers, who have been able to breach sophisticated security systems in order to steal funds. -Virtual currencies can cost you more to use than credit cards or even regular cash once you take exchange rate issues into consideration.

>>For more information regarding virtual currency, please refer to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) website at cfpb.gov or the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) website at ncua.gov.

>>If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact us.

[1] A+ Federal Credit Union, yes, their official name has a plus symbol in it

[2] I never ended up using Coinbase, for unrelated reasons.

[oefrha]

Yeah that was my reading of the title, and I highly doubt this nothingburger article would be upvoted to one of the top spots without the clickbait title. Flagged for waste of time.

(I’m not a cryptocurrency fan, and have a grand total of a couple hundred bucks in crypto. Well, maybe a grand now, I don’t know.)

[anthony_romeo]

True, but it's a good reminder given that:

- There are a lot of economic instabilities in the world right now (e.g. COVID, lockdowns) increasing poverty.

- Bitcoin increased by up to 400% in the past year, and about an order of magnitude since its lows in 2019.

There's obviously a temptation to invest more and more when the value keeps going up -- desperation latching onto volatility -- which can cause increase hardship to those who fail to adequately acknowledge the risk. Those who invested in Bitcoin yesterday lost 25% of their value today.

[cableshaft]

They only lost if they sell it now. If they're not planning to sell for a couple of years when they invested then it doesn't matter that it dropped >20% in the last 48 hours.

I've been through this rodeo twice before, I've been checking the price regularly since at least 2014. I haven't lost any money because I didn't sell during downturns (although it's been tempting to do so for sure).

It's hard to say for sure if this is just shaking out weak hands and institutions will jump back in and it will start climbing again, or if we're at the start of a 2+ year constant downtrend again. I really hope it's not that, that was annoying, and we just climbed out of that in the past year, but we'll see (although it allowed me to keep buying a increasingly larger slivers of bitcoin every month all the way down to its low of $3500 last year).

It's fine that this article exists for the people that could use the reminder, I just don't like how the headline was worded. It made me think for a moment that there was going to be a major crackdown and we were definitely heading into a major drop in prices (way beyond what it has so far).

[thegreatpeter]

It's only annoying b/c you're riding the train and hope it hits whatever # it takes you to sell.

That's what's happening right now. It hit a number and folks are selling. For every seller at 40k, there's a buyer. That sucks for those who got caught up in it.

Bitcoin won't magically "stabilize" if it hits 50k/100k/1m, it will crash, just like its doing now. It will make a small group of people very wealthy on the losses of everyone else

[alwillis]

Bitcoin won't magically "stabilize" if it hits 50k/100k/1m, it will crash, just like its doing now…

This isn't a crash. 10-15% corrections are normal and to be expected. There's always resistance at round number milestones—$20,000 then $30,000 and now $40,000.

In the not too distant future, $40,000 will look quaint.

[cableshaft]

My number was a bit higher for when I was planning to sell a substantial portion, and yes that is part of the reason I am annoyed.

I was hoping it would reach that point 2-3 years ago, so even though I do think it's more natural we see corrections such as this, I just can't help but feel a little impatient, I'm human.

I know there's no guarantee it would even get up as high as it is now, and I'm actually surprised it shot up so much this year after being at $3,500 a bit more than a year ago, but oh well.

Bitcoin would have to basically crater into the ground for me to actually get to the point where I lost money. I bought most of what I have several years ago, and only get little slivers of it now, small enough I don't notice it leaving my paycheck. I spend less on it every month than I spend on takeout in a week, and I don't get much takeout.

[SoSoRoCoCo]

I got that vibe as well. It could be a hint at an incoming regulation sweep.

[bena]

That's good advice for investing in general.

[vsareto]

It's not really though. That amount of risk aversion would keep people out of the market who would be better served by keeping it in a lazy portfolio for extended amounts of time.

[bena]

So, it's not money they're counting on. If they lose it, it won't collapse their life.

There's a difference between "would like to not lose" and "can't lose". I would like to not lose my investments. I can't lose rent.