Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Appreciate that Shonen. I'm totally sick of the unnecessary devastation this has caused and government treating us all like idiots that won't conduct their own research and formulate their own conclusions based on a wide range of information sources. The whole thing is being walked back at record pace in some countries so it feels like something is afoot. We'll see where this goes but those that have bought into the narrative hook, line and sinker might find themselves aghast.
Gavster, have you seen the latest report from Johns Hopkins where they have concluded all the restrictions possibly reduced transmission by 0.23%? i.e. pointless. Even CNN are saying cloth & plastic masks were useless (but are actually damaging to human physiology). The jabs, lockdowns, restrictions have done far harm to the economy than a virus everyone I know has had (including me) that was essentially a bad cold, and a bad headache for 24hrs. The PCR was used completely out of normal operation by detecting inconsequential viral DNA remnants by ramping it up to 40-45 cycle thresholds (The FDA stopped recommending it's use last month - why now I wonder? Because the damage is done). Oh, and you can test 'positive' up to 3 months after any alleged illness but other Doctors say longer. Suddenly we had the 'asymptomatic' phenomenon, and amazingly flu completely disappeared, for the first time, EVER. No it didn't, it was rebranded Covid using said PCR at high cycle thresholds. The measures you talk about so grandiosely were all guesswork BEFORE data was available. So put your 'conspiracies' gambit back in it's little bag and revert when you something other than government propaganda talking points whereupon you have employed ZERO critical thinking. 10's of Millions of deaths - what a f*cking laugh. That'll be from the latest Imperial College accurate computer modelling presumably? i.e. ****e in, ****e out.
Apart from the CV19 vax rate which frankly has no place on an RNS given that should be private medical information (double jabbed, tripled jabbed, quadruple jabbed with a cherry on top? Don't stop there. Maybe also provide us with the cardiovascular health of all workers that is arguably far more pertinent. How about mental health? Or detailed HIV screening across the business?) everything else looks solid.
Oh look, we're back above $45k. That didn't take long. It's moments like these that only serve to strengthen the Bullish momentum. It still feels like BTC is straining at the leash. Huge upside potential from here IMO. $47k right around the corner.
In other words bang on what was predicted, yet we get a sell off. What CPI did these Traders expect? 1.5%? 2%? Duh? If there is one thing the last 2yrs has really taught me it's how skittish and stupid human beings actually are. Obviously now we need the Parental figure (e.g. Powell) telling them not to worry and tucking them into their bed tonight. Once they feel warm and fuzzy (from filling their nappies possibly) they'll buy back in.
That really took the Bears by surprise. They were hoping for a reversal at $39.5k by the looks but then we blew through $40k. Now the momentum chasers will buy in and we might see even more Shorts getting rekt. Hopefully all those looking for $28k were WELL leveraged. $40k is a massive psychological level.
This speaks more of technical ineptitude. There are banks in pretty all developed countries that allow you to transfer funds to/from reputable exchanges. In what's seems to be an increasing climate of 'victims' and 'wilting violets' my response to him and anyone like him....."try harder". Or buy miners like ARB for indirect exposure if this is too challenging. As more companies take BTC for payment, and more nation states adopt BTC as legal tender the FIAT intermediary will no longer be needed. We're still transitioning. This article is however useful to see what way the FUD is blowing.
Here's an idea; midterm elections 2022, inflation bad for Biden but stock market crash arguably worse. The FED keeps making noises about rate rises, and we've known since November that March 2022 was proposed as the first one. The talk alone has calmed things down. Powell sees just how flakey the Markets are right now and to prevent a monumental downward cascade suggests price controls on key goods and services to minimise inflation on Mainstreet while keeping interest rates where they are as a 'temporary measure'. Just until the supply chain issues are resolved. Assets including BTC would resume their trend up in a big way and it's game on.
Alternatively we see the first rate rise in March, nothing really happens (as it should be well and truly priced in), confidence properly resumes and we start trending up in a measured manner. Lets not forget the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Tesla are all reporting better than expected earnings so all this talk of NASDAQ implosion seems very rash IMO. Confidence will also be enhanced when the Ukraine situation gets resolved. All headwinds right now yet here we are at $37k.
Also consider a lot of folk were seriously p1ssed off not buying in at the $30k last time round, including institutions. I'm no expert but they typically buy at big support and sell / take profits at big resistance. Just like you don't wait until the previous ATH to start taking profits you probably don't wait until the big support level before taking a position. Most will be looking at the blood bath in the traditional markets and be thinking the FED is going to be very limited in what is can actually do. Mostly bark, very little bite. Look at all the companies on emergency government loan life support, especially travel. The economy is still awash with FIAT up at those levels and after the crash we've had why would you not start taking a position? Many will see right now as a huge opportunity with limited downside. You also have Whales already with sizeable positions looking to protect their investments; capitulation would not be in their interests right at the start of the year. I see the Alts are starting to turn green. ATOM up 12%. The interest is still there, we just have a few dirty nappies to change.
Apparently a bunch of big YouTube content creators were hacked pretty much in unison today, including Ivan on Tech, The Moon and even Andreas Antonopoulos. Fishy? I think so. I maintain my view that BTC has been under sustained strategic attacks arguably since May last year to keep it largely in check, and while it sneaked past it's ATH in November that was very much a damp squib and did not align with all the sentiment and metrics at the time, including historical patterns that have shown uncanny repetitions. Admittedly Institutions have changed the game and the ongoing *health situation* has warped pretty much everything, but games were afoot. There are some big players that do not want a light shone on rampant inflation, and deeply corrupt system that FIAT is. There are however big players that support it and see it and the whole space as a massive part of the future. Web 3.0 etc etc. 2021 was essentially a big dog fight. The Bears have used FUD to mount very aggressive attacks and while the $40k attack on Jan 10th was massively rejected all the mind games since then got to many. We then got the recent Russia FUD (because China has been milked to death) and along with the umpteenth reminder of the FED tapering and intending to raise rates sent many over the edge (now likely waiting for the re-entry). I still think something huge regarding the *health situation* is being front run, but that aside we're now approaching huge support at $30k and the savvy will be DCA'ing in already. I've been in this market since 2016 and when it looks beyond hopeless something flips and we start rising with strength again, and if this blood bath across traditional markets continues you can kiss good bye to any rates rises, and the stampede comes back to Crypto, and that's before we even talk about eye-watering government and corporate debt that obviously cannot be serviced with any meaningful rate rises. It would be absolute carnage on a scale never seen before and hence politically unviable.
Why do so many people seem sure BTC is heading lower? The fundamentals only grow stronger and net flow is off exchanges. Miners are NOT selling. Do people still not understand how BTC works? We hit $20k back in 2017 with just Retail and pure speculation. A whole digitised ecosystem is being built right in front of our faces and BTC underwrites it all. If there is another black swan (and I do not class Governments ongoing destruction of SME's through POLICY, burdening the plebs and future generations with insurmountable debt in that bracket) BTC was the first to bounce and it bounced hard. It also looks like the wheels are falling off this *situation* as almost in perfect unison governments globally are downgrading this *thing* to endemic and / or removing all restrictions. The 'health passport' (i.e. papers) seems to be no longer in vogue either so I only assume these scum bags are front running some sort of news or big announcement because this speed of this recent U-turn is nothing short of extraordinary. Looks like panic to me.
In other words the Miners would rather take on debt, presumably using their BTC as collateral, rather than selling any BTC at these prices in order to build out infrastructure. I'd call that very Bullish. Remember it becomes progressively harder to mine BTC and there is a finite supply. Just because you own something of value, doesn't mean you want to sell it anytime soon, especially if you can get FIAT at near zero interest rates because you or someone you know is close to the spigot. When they do sell it'll probably be a strategic drip feed to keep prices high and maximise revenue. Maybe Exchanges will eventually have to bid against each other for what is left and hence pay a hefty premium.
You could probably describe this market as schizophrenic, or bi-polar, with these sudden lurches up and down. To me it still smells of rinse and repeat to flush out as much Retail as possible. Big sell, flush, buy back, lurch back up, sell, flush, buy back up etc while maintaining some degree of half decent sentiment as the eventually the Whales will be ready to let this go. I've noticed a few analysts talking about a huge green candle in the offing, which certainly seems plausible. BTC continues to net flow off exchanges, liquid supply shrinks and Miners are not selling. A supply crunch has to come and it'll catch the vast majority of people way off guard.
I think the thing that ****es everyone off the most now is the blatant price manipulation. We've know for some time what the FED plan to do (I can't see them achieving 3 rate hikes this year, but we'll see - even if there is, big deal! FIAT is hyperinflating). The weak hands are long gone. As soon as there is even marginally negative news (e.g. a bit higher than expected jobless claims in the US) the chance is seized to dump hoping more will follow suit and maybe take out a few longs in the process. In the meantime the intent is to wear people down into selling and pick up that BTC cheap along the way. Grind, rinse, repeat, grind, rinse, repeat until the Whales decide it's time to let it fly. Consider BTC continues to net flow off exchanges so accumulation is occurring. Miners are not selling because they predict higher prices. This is nothing like Apr/May last year. Folk just need to sit tight and let these games play out, even if it has become immensely tiresome. I'm just waiting for China banning mining for the 10th time, or..........drum roll, 'energy concerns'.
We just need to start a cascade of Short liquidations. If so we could see some real upward momentum. The weak hands left long ago. What we've seen all month are timed attacks to try and push BTC lower hoping it would create further downward price movement by scaring, or boring, holders out of the market. Well, they can f*ck right off and I'm sure most other HODLers by now share that sentiment. I go back to that huge failed attack yesterday at $40k as a potentially pivotal moment. Seemingly out of nowhere the Bulls came back with a huge right hook, landed square, and put the Bears on the ropes. The slug fest continues but the Bears are inherently cowards and will buckle soon enough.
Personally I think we're now wearing down the Bears. Also consider the number of Whales BTC bullish who would never sell at these levels (and are likely accumulating) and Retail like myself who feel that they are nowhere near their asking price based on overall fundamentals that only grow stronger. Two of my predictions for 2022 is a minor exchange running out of BTC and the return if DeFi is a big way; I think the likes of AAVE is grossly undervalued right now.
The huge attack at 2pm yesterday at the $40k level that was bought back up instantly was a massive moment in my view. That was the play to try and push us into the 30's. We then had a lesser attempt at 5pm. The Bears lost a lot of powder with those moves and it demonstrates big underlying support at these levels. The Bulls have gotten smarter and the war of attrition could we have flipped and be going in the opposite direction as we've ticked up nicely since then. The more people DCA and HODL the stronger BTC becomes. The miners will then catch up.
A reminder of why we are in Crypto. It's a risky Asset as measured in FIAT currency, where we have a privately owned and controlled Central Bank who issue said FIAT currency backed by nothing under motivations private to them, irrespective of what they tell the wider audience. They then pretend that the cost of that money (credit) is going to become more expensive by raising interest rates and/or tapering sooner than previously advised to mitigate the devaluation of their FIAT currency (inflation) precisely due to the almost exponential issuance thereof. What they fail to tell the Proles (but what most of us know) is that there is close to $30 Trillion in this country's national debt and a derivatives market that is almost beyond comprehension. Any meaningful rises in said Rates will cause economic Armageddon, exacerbated by the fact that this central bank also issues the world reserve currency. So the question is, with D-Day fast approaching where should one store his or her wealth? In the bank where each jurisdiction insures you up to a certain threshold but may impose daily or weekly limits on withdrawals or all manner of other funny business because your bank deposit is a LOAN to the bank, your balance is a balance of IOU's and hence they may need to default on that loan or use the capital elsewhere for a 'duration', i.e. re-capitalisation. In the Stockmarket? To some extent yes but expect major tumult there. In precious metals? To an extent absolutely. Or in the only truly global digital asset that is decentralised, trustless, very portable, and provided the lights are on you can access your money. I like the latter, and if enough other people do we can eventually de-couple from this system of inflationary paper enslavement. BTC is like a big F*** Y** to FIAT. The battle will then be against (equally inflationary) CBDC's / social credit score / 'health' pass and all the other Technocratic bull they are forcing upon us in real time. Failing that I'll be using my gold and silver to buy loo roll and eggs down the black market :)