I would like to come in from a different view. IMHO, BTC's rise from 1000 (start 2017) to 10,000 (Dec. 2017) was the "norm" . That significant rise in a short amount of time caught the ire of the "Establishment" (World Banks and Wall Street). BTC/Crytpos are intruding on their domain of currency and wealth creation. In addition, many clients were pulling money out of their traditional investment vehicles and strongly asking their investment managers to divert holdings into BTC/Cryptocurrencies. Of course, this raised a red flag and so a plan was put into motion to DESTROY or diminish the thought of investing in BTC/Cryptocurrencies in the minds and hearts of their wealthy clients as well as MAIN STREET. You can hear the echoes of this sentiment by some of their leaders in the media. DON'T GET INVOLVED WITH CRYPTOS - "A BUBBLE", "SCAM", "PONZI SCHEME","NO INTRINSIC VALUE" etc.
How NOT to achieve this? First, they don't have the main mechanism of (naked) short selling and destroying the value of a company (or in this case BTC/Cryptos) like they do in the stock market. This is why in the equity stock market the house always wins. Small investors cannot "borrow" large sums of shares they don't own and sell into the market to drive the price down, unlike the wall street establishment and big banks/investment houses. Secondly, due to Blockchain technology "borrowing" BTC/cryptocurrencies to short cannot happen on a public ledger that virtually everyone has access to, unlike the clearing houses that perform stock trade settlements (longs and shorts), hidden and out of sight for the majority of investors. http://shortdata.ca/big-players-little-stocks-and-naked-shorts/
How TO achieve this? Well, what we see this week and within the last month was their quick plan taking effect using the brute force method. They created 2 new futures/options trading vehicles , despite the false protest from the Establishment. They bought BTC/Cryptos in a very short time frame so these "investment" vehicles hold the underlying assets we're told. So, can you imagine 1000-10,000 in approx. 11 months, but in less than a few weeks 10,000 to nearly 20,000! Who has the means to do that for BTC and also across a broad spectrum of Cryptocurrencies? Look at all the large market caps at the highs! But, in a more impressive fashion crashing prices in a matter of days! Now, again who would have the means and why would they sacrifice billions in order to do this? One word, DOUBT. They were willing to pay a huge sum to instill doubt into the minds of their investors and also the general public. DON'T GET INVOLVED WITH CRYPTOS - "A BUBBLE", "SCAM", "PONZI SCHEME", etc. Will their plan work? Time will tell.
There is one saving grace, however, and that is they are trying to prop up their own devised "bubbles" - both the equity market and bond market. We hear all the daily, weekly, and quarterly highs from the media regarding these markets. But, they can't divert funds from one market in order to destroy another for an extended period of time. Thankfully, there is a limit to the amount of money they can be print out of thin air before they get called on it (if not already).
Is there something the Crypto community can do to hold back this onslaught? Absolutely, 1) DON'T SELL and importantly 2) BUY! The power of BTC (market leader) is its finite availability and scarcity that will drive up the price making it more difficult for the Establishment to reallocate resources to put out the fire. Not only is it critical to NOT SELL, but also to BUY, because if no one continues to buy in fear of price dropping then the Establishment can continue to SELL to each other driving the price down even further. SOMEONE needs to step in and stop the perpetual selling by the Establishment.
Many will view this as a NORMAL HEALTHY market correction. However, from what I have seen within a very short time frame things looks far from NORMAL or ORDERLY, but rather a strategic and spectacular way to instill DOUBT about Cryptocurrencies and divert everyone's attention back to the "NORM".
I honestly like your way of thinking.
But you need to see that not a small part of the crypto community is here for making profits and you do not make profits if you just buy without thinking.
Most of us won't invest exceedingly into Bitcoin either just to "save" it's current worth.
And just to bring in my opinion, I think it still is a market correction. JP Morgen tweeted about BTC being overrated again and still buys it (as last time he just fakes it so the price drops).
I understand, it's just business, and people have to protect their investment.
But too many of them started crypto trading 1-3 month ago.
They have to know about fake news to avoid panic.