China bans Bitcoin, China pumps Bitcoin. But the major victim is Steem!

"China bans Bitcoin" is the perennial theme for Bitcoin bears. When bitcoin shows weakness in a key support level (e.g. $7500) and there is a news on Chinese regulator's hard stance, Bitcoin goes south. This time bitcoin went below $7000, 33% down from last month.

Previously, when Chinese president Xi Jinping declared that blockchain is an emerging technology and China wants to be leader in this field. Bulls pumped bitcoin from $7.5 to $10K.

Bulls make money, bears make money but pigs get slaughtered. It is the market makers (or market manipulators) who make money in both direction. Noob traders with leverage get caught.

However, the biggest victims are altcoins. When Bitcoin gets pumped up, altcoins see moderate jump. But when Bitcoin gets dumped, alcoins crash like domino.

In this, "China loves Bitcoin" or "China bans Bitcoin", altcoins get slaughtered regardless of their progress. One of the biggest victim is Steem since its major trade pair is Bitcoin in Binance and Bittrex. Steem is flirting with all time low (7 cents). One has to remember, when Steem hit 7 cents, it was a very sad position- 100% inflation, Hive account@dan and Hive account@ned split and loss of major confidence.

Today's #newSteem is more than 10X better than #oldSteem and Bitcoin is still 10X higher when Steem was 7 cents. How come on the Earth, Steem is flirting with all time low (only 4 cents to go). Is it the failure of Steem ecosystem or tyranny of the Bitcoin, the master and king of cryptocurrencies.

I would say both. STINC have failed measurably to re-brand Steem after all these bad news after bad news. Outside investors had very bad image about Steem: 100% inflation, project is ded since Hive account@dan left, 70% fire of its employees, bot farming, tyranny of whales, circle-jerks, delays in SMT release, oh..Steemit is Steem etc. STINC have failed to address these issues publicly in very bad fashion. No wonder Steem's ranking dropped form top 30s to low 80s.

On the other, having no major fiat pair in Hive account@binance and Hive account@bittrex, hit hard steem too. By the way, Hive account@hitbtc and Hive account@poloniex did not help either. Three million Steem can be dumped in coming months. Where are the owners of these 3 million Steem? Also, I don't see any effort from STINC to push Hive account@poloniex to send them to Hive account@null. There is no major attempt from STINC to add steem to more exchanges either.

Though the developments through STINC and community is at all time high, it is shame that Steem is trading at 11-12 cents. Steem community and STINC needs to brainstorm to work out a solution. A major solution could be have Steem in Coinbase, fiat/stable coin pair at Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, DigiFinex etc. Also, design a bot to provide liquidity to the market. Generate sinks for Steem through different sources. The idea from sinks can easily borrowed from a successful tribe Hive account@steem.leo.

Disclaimer: This opinion is not a financial advice, it my personal perspective and opinion. Please seek professionals for financial decisions. This opinion is only for educational purpose.

Image sources: Most images are open sourced (e.g. Pixabay, Wikimedia etc.) with Creative common license. Some images are used with due courtesy to respected owners.

Thanks for reading.
Hive account@dtrade
Cryptominer , occasional trader and tech blogger since 2013