What with google, twitter, faceburg and whoever banning all the pump and dump coins it does appear to be having quite an impact on btc and other top crypto. I never got into all those ico as I looked at so many as scams and being the exact opposite of what btc was meant to be but this has changed things quite a bit. I’m not banging the drum saying btc is dead like I’m seeing all over the Internet lately (people have a lot of hate) but due to me not completely understanding the ico market entanglement with btc I misjudged
I think knocking out the Pump & Dumps as much as possible is good for the crypto space - remember, Pump & Dumpers take value away from people who want to actually invest in crypto by manipulating them with lies. Value that the scammers gain is value lost to crypto - it has to come form somewhere, because trading is zero-sum - every sale is someone else’s purchase. When a Pump & Dumper sells at the top, the poor soul who bought it from them is paying for it with their own money, hoping they’re investing in a rising commodity.
I don’t think the bans are what “hurt” crypto. I put “hurt” in quotes because if you bought BTC one year ago today, you’d have paid about $3,350 - and today BTC is worth about $6,600 as I write this. I’ll take that kind of “hurt” in my portfolio, thanks!
The problem was that things got too hot and too crazy at the end of 2017 - and it did cause a bubble, and bubble pop and deflate. In the process, some people got financially hurt, and that will understandably make everyone cautious. People will be careful until they’re sure the declines are done.
The good news is that we’ve bounced back from the $6,000 level several times. It looks like the big “smart money” players believ $6,000 BTC is a bargain, and will come in and buy every time. I take this as an indicator that the bottom has been drawn - this should give people the confidence to start really getting back into the markets.
I suspect there’s a really good second half of 2018 ready to come at us!