Bitcoin Spring Festival Hurricane: Returning virtual currency investors choose to carnival on the Internet and be silent at the dinner table
In 2023, Bitcoin will rise by more than 160% throughout the year, and during the Spring Festival, the price of Bitcoin will exceed $50,000, reaching the highest level in nearly two years.
Against the backdrop of poor performance across multiple asset classes in 2023, many investors have shifted their attention to virtual currencies.
However, virtual currency investors who are "carnivaling" in exchange groups and social platforms under the rising market have chosen to remain silent in front of relatives and friends after returning to their hometowns, hiding their identities as "coin speculators", and discussions about Bitcoin are being deliberately avoided.
On the one hand, the public's negative impression of virtual currency investment is easy to bring some controversy and questioning, and on the other hand, the difficulty of deposit and withdrawal, the large number of altcoins, fake platforms, fraud routines emerge in an endless stream, and the price of the currency rises and falls like a roller coaster.
In the interview before and after the Spring Festival, the reporter noticed that leaving the environment of first- and second-tier cities, leaving the communication community on the Internet, in life, especially in the hometown environment, "silent" about virtual currency-related discussions seems to have become the unanimous choice of many returning virtual currency investors.
The "silent" coin speculator
On February 14, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the price of bitcoin broke through $51,000 in one fell swoop after a brief correction, a one-day increase of 6%, and on February 15, bitcoin continued to soar all the way to $52,660, a new high since December 2021. Compared to the stage low of $26,750 in mid-October 2023, the increase has reached almost 100%.
At the same time, a series of virtual tokens such as Starknet have opened "airdrops" one after another, and the "coin speculation groups" are boiling, and the voices of "thank you to the God of Wealth", "increase positions" and "make hemp" are endless.
In 2023, when the performance of many assets was unsatisfactory and the capital market was volatile and sluggish, Bitcoin gradually came out of the "haze" market, and its price more than doubled from the annual low of $16,000 in January 2023 to the end of the year, with an annual increase of more than 160%. Since January 24, 2024, the price of bitcoin has soared, and the market capitalization has exceeded the scale of $1 trillion.
Mr. Ho, a virtual currency investor who works in Hong Kong, told the China Times that in December 2023, when he communicated with his father, who was engaged in engineering contracting work in his hometown, his father first expressed his interest in Bitcoin.
"My dad is worried about the payment at the end of the year, and I just mentioned that Bitcoin is a big bull market this year, and it is estimated that it will rise in the future. And this time, I also specifically mentioned to my father that retail investors in Hong Kong will be allowed to trade virtual assets on licensed platforms from June 1, 2023. Unexpectedly, my dad thought about it and told me that when the New Year was over, he had plenty of money, and asked me to help him buy some on his Hong Kong account and try it. Mr. Ho recalled.
Mr. He entered the "currency circle" in April 2018, when he was still a college student, he bought more than 1,000 yuan of virtual currency EOS at a price of less than $6 under the Amway of his classmates, and caught up with the price of EOS skyrocketing within a few days of holding, and the market value of the coins held increased several times, but before he made a move, he soon ushered in a round of sharp decline.
Mr. Ho shows reporters his "ledger" that records virtual currency transactions
"Although the overall market fluctuates greatly, there is room for arbitrage. Mr. He, who has experienced a number of virtual currency market shocks, told reporters that he continued to buy virtual currency with the money he earned through his part-time job during college, although the market rose and fell several times, but he has not cleared his position, "Bitcoin is the same, I save my living expenses, work, and save my own money to buy a little bit." ”
Mr. Ho admits that this is not the first time he has mentioned investing in Bitcoin to his father. At the end of 2019, when the price of bitcoin plummeted and was at a stage low, he also suggested to his father to buy the bottom and buy some bitcoin to "hoard", but at that time, his father "felt that there was a risk, and after falling so much, he didn't buy it".
Since 2019, the price of Bitcoin has risen from more than $7,000 to more than $50,000 today.
"Virtual currency investment is very risky, and people in many places, especially outside the first and second-tier cities, do not have much idle funds, and their risk tolerance is relatively low, so it is not suitable for currency speculation. Mr. He told reporters that when he returned to his hometown, he could feel that many people around him had an "unreliable" attitude towards virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, and felt that this was a scam, so he talked about coin speculation with them, and added a filter to himself, "It's still negative."
"So there are relatives and friends at home who may know a little bit about my coin speculation, but they don't know much, and I try not to mention it to them. Mr. He said.
Negative impressions are not unfounded
The negative sentiment towards virtual currencies is not unfounded.
There are 8,828 types of virtual currencies included in the virtual currency price tracking website CoinMarketCap
In recent years, due to the short development time and the large variety of virtual currencies in the market, criminals have taken advantage of the public's lack of awareness of virtual currencies to use a large number of cases of illegal fundraising, illegal cross-border transfer of assets, money laundering, fraud, pyramid schemes, tax evasion and other illegal and criminal activities in the name of "virtual currency", "metaverse", "NFT" and "blockchain".
However, the price of many virtual currencies rises and falls by a large range, and there are not a few cases of investors blindly following the trend to enter the market, buying at the high point of the currency price, and even increasing leverage and speculating in contracts, resulting in liquidation, shrinkage of the market value of the assets held, or even "zeroing".
In some small-capitalization virtual currency markets, it is not uncommon for some large investors to manipulate the market at will, and even trading platforms to manipulate prices at will, resulting in investors losing their money.
As early as 2021, the People's Bank of China and 10 other departments also made it clear in the Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risk of Speculation in Virtual Currency Transactions that virtual currency does not have the same legal status as legal tender, and that virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities.
Mr. Yu, a virtual currency investor, also feels the same way. Out of concern, he has not mentioned his coin speculation to his family so far.
"Virtual currency investment is characterized by high risk, and it is often difficult for family members to understand and accept this investment method, and they are afraid that they will not support it. Mr. Yu told the "China Times" reporter that under this concern, in order to avoid unnecessary disputes and misunderstandings, he chose not to let his family know that he was speculating coins.
"The people who know that I speculate are all friends who are connected, and I feel that my family is less interested. Mr. Yu said.
"There are also many people in small places who use the name of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin to commit fraud, and for many ordinary people, it is very difficult to distinguish between real and fake Bitcoin. Ms. Fan, a virtual currency investor, also believes that for ordinary people, virtual currency investment has a certain cognitive threshold, and their access to information is limited, so it is easy to be deceived, "so I don't recommend friends in the mainland to contact virtual currency, let alone take the initiative to mention it." ”
It's not that I haven't chosen "Amway"
Embarking on the road of not talking about virtual currency investment with the people around you has also experienced a bit of twists and turns.
Recalling the experience of taking her girlfriend to speculate on coins, Ms. Fan was still embarrassed, "Fortunately, I didn't lose money at that time, or I didn't even have to be a friend." ”
In the second half of 2018, when the price of ETH fluctuated at more than $100, Ms. Fan led her female friend to invest part of the funds in the virtual currency market, and by May 2021, the price of ETH had risen to more than $4,000, and Ms. Fan's friend had made a lot of profits. But this sounds like a beautiful story of "leading to get rich", but behind it is full of Ms. Fan's bitterness.
"My girlfriend didn't know how to operate the whole process, and I didn't understand the market. From registration to deposit and withdrawal, trading and trading, I was helping to operate the whole process, and even when she made money and wanted to withdraw money, she even forgot her account password. Ms. Fan told the "China Times" reporter that when her girlfriend decided to enter the virtual currency market, her income was good and her mentality was relatively good, so she was also willing to take out some of the funds to test the water. But in the later stage, my girlfriend invested a lot of money in real estate, and her income level also decreased to a certain extent, so her mentality began to change.
Ms. Fan told reporters that since then, she realized that there is still a certain "threshold" for speculation, from the entry and exit of funds to the selection and exit of investment targets, every action may produce risks, and no one can say for sure after all, "so I will never ask my friends Amway again, even if others recommend me, I will give some ideas at most, or it will become a thankless thing." ”
At home during the Spring Festival, Ms. Fan felt that everyone's attitude towards coin speculation was not positive, and occasionally relatives and friends who wanted to make money would want to come to find out, but they would not act rashly due to cognition and risks.
And the mode of operation has also become a barrier that prevents many people from really getting into virtual currency investment.
Mr. Yu told reporters that he had also introduced to his two friends the common low-cost investment methods in the currency circle, such as airdrops and chain games, but due to the fact that the basic work such as network, IP, and various chains of recharge and transfer, wallet registration and other basic work required too much energy, waiting for airdrops for a long time, slow realization, etc., the two friends finally chose to give up.
For those who are eager to find opportunities in the virtual currency market, the huge increase in virtual currency in a relatively short period of time is inevitably tempting, but although the story of getting rich sounds pleasant, the uncertainty, high volatility and high investment risk of virtual currency are still facts that cannot be ignored.
"Investing in virtual currencies is extremely risky and is never a surefire deal. Mr. Liu, a virtual currency investor, sighed.
Editor-in-charge: Meng Junlian Editor-in-chief: Zhang Zhiwei