A Recap of October 2018 So Far

A lot has happened in crypto in October 2018 despite the price of Bitcoin staying rather stagnant. Let’s do a quick review of October 2018 so far.

Although Bitcoin and Ethereum are stagnant in price, some alts have been preforming really well. We saw XRP and Doge (universally beloved coins) kill it. Later we will see ZRX, BAT, and a few newcomers like RVN do really well too. This is unlike most of 2018 which has been a blood bath and full of declines.

Early in October we learned Yale University Investing in $400 Million Cryptocurrency Fund.

Everyone panicked as the market drops on October 10th.

Fidelity added their name to the list of giants getting into the crypto space. Fidelity I believe will be using BAKKT for custody. It is a big deal… but the crypto markets didn’t move over it.

A bunch of stable coins have been coming out. From early October to mid October a bunch of new stable coins were released or were adopted on major exchanges. This includes USDC, Gemini’s stable coin, the Paxos stable coin, Huobi’s stable coin, and more. See 9 New Stable Coins.

All the new stable coins coming out, plus some same-old-same-old-here-we-go-again vanilla Tether FUD, caused yet another Tether panic. Let’s call this one, “the great Tether panic of mid-October 2018.” In the panic, and on Oct 15 specifically, Tether lost its peg. This resulted in some unfortunate souls panic selling and some more fortune souls making a killing on arbitrage.

Tether losing its peg wasn’t all bad, because actually Bitcoin rallied like crazy that day. From here on things get a little crazy, because from here forward exchanges that use USD stop valuing Bitcoin at the same price as exchanges that use Tether. It now costs more to buy BTC with Tether than it does BTC. That said, the rally on Oct 15th causes a classic Bart pattern, that started on Oct 10th, to resolve.

Oddly, despite all the positive news, talking heads spent a lot of time declaring crypto dead and warning of doom and gloom.

Oh yeah, and the entire crypto market cap is forming an inverted head and shoulders pattern which coins like RVN, BAT, and ZRX are helping to manifest. That is potentially Bullish AF, but like… crypto though.

Marketcap is heading to a key resistance which is also the neckline of an IHS. Breaking it would confirm the reversal and a new bull market. pic.twitter.com/sdGmY8wlYa

— CryptoWolf (@IamCryptoWolf) October 21, 2018

Also…. John McAfee is running for President to promote crypto.

Lesson 1: Don’t panic buy/sell crypto. Lesson 2: Consider arbitrage.  Lesson 3: If you are going to use Tether, make sure you have confidence in it first, stable coins can lose their peg (even though they shouldn’t). Lesson 4: When coins run they can run quick. If you don’t want to miss the runs, you’ll need figure out a strategy for getting in before the run. Lesson 5: Crypto is fun, weird, full of traps, but also there is some serious rewards for those who have the guts to accumulate and HODL and the skill and/or luck to make it out alive.