CULTURE CLASH (Express Yourself)
The Rise of Cryptocurrency Chris AS CRYPTOCURRENCY SOARS TO NEW HEIGHTS, SO DOES THE REGULATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS THAT HAVE BEGUN TO ARISE. When looking back over the past 3 years a lot has happened in the world of cryptocurrency, some good and some bad. There have been many new players entering into the market including huge investment firms, large corporations, and people like you and me. Even Hollyweird and the uber rich have decided that if it is good enough for Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, then it must be good enough for them, too. In many cases, those making the biggest investments into cryptocurrency are also the ones that are doing their best to manipulate the price, sometimes creating volatility in the market. When we introduced the idea of Bitcoin to our readers in 2018, the total investment into cryptocurrency was at $9 Billion US dollars, according to CoinMarketCap.com. 1 Now we are well above that at a whopping $1.9 Trillion. Where did that money come from? It came from people all around the world trying to get in on the Bitcoin Buzz and make some good money in the process. Companies like Facebook and Tesla are some of the juggernauts that tried to cash in on the ‘Bitcoin Bubble’. In both examples the owners of the companies, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, told very different stories about their involvement into cryptocurrency, but the end result was the same. 1
Coin Market CP. (2021, September). www.coinmarketcap.com
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Hall In the case of Facebook, they created their own form of digital currency known as ‘Libra’. We should be surprised based on the public stance that Facebook/Zuckerberg took at the beginning of their journey into cryptocurrency. In their case, it was the development of a digital asset for their social platform, or a native currency. Zuckerberg did everything he could to publicly criticize Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general. While behind the scenes, he was buying large amounts of Bitcoin. You ask yourself, why would a billionaire tell me that Bitcoins are no good, and then buy them in secret? The natural answer is – greed. By creating a negative impression of a digital asset owned by the people, he could drive the price down, and then scoop them up when others were selling because of fear, uncertainty, and doubt – FUD. 2 Possessing large amounts of this asset, allows Facebook to manipulate and steer investing in their own native currency, while also controlling prices of their biggest competition – Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not owned by a corporation; it is owned by the people who purchase Bitcoin. 2 FUD is an acronym used in the trading world to denote spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
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