Why Bitcoin is Down? Neo Fud. South Africa. Tanzania. Kenya.

Why Bitcoin is Down and Alts? NEO Fud. South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya. All prices are given in USD. This is just my personal opinion. As always feel free to comment or scrutinize. Hello everyone. My name is Nick, the host of Sobuka where I give commentary and opinions on what is going on in the cryptocurrency industry with respect to the southern and eastern hemisphere. On this channel, myself and others like Brian and Laura are always looking for ways to make our content and interaction better with the audience. Suggestions are definitely appreciated. So the area that I will cover today relates to Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya which I covered briefly in my Bitcoin Flash report. Understanding the cryptocurrency market in these regions should help broaden one's global perspective when it comes to cryptocurrencies. But first I will look at some market anomalies in the cryptocurrency space because most cryptocurrency have lost more than 50% of their value from recent high. Today I will look at several reasons why Bitcoin is down. I will also look at this FUD or confusion surrounding NEO. So guys stay tuned. For Full YouTube Video: Click Here Bitcoin is Down Starting with Bitcoin, we have about a $500 or more pullback in the cryptocurrency. What I can sense right now from the things that I read and watch is just profit taking and people is Asia afraid of this ICO ban from the Chinese banks. And typically when prices like this surge higher and higher like for the past few fews, you do have times like this for a cool down period. And it was not just Bitcoin that took a hit this past weekend and even today. You have top cryptocurrencies that fell like Ethereum and Litecoin. However, what is impressive is that Litecoin has been holding steady in about the $70.00 region while some cryptocurrencies have taken a 50% hit or more. And this was prior to Litecoin trying to hit $100.00. I was looking at Litecoin from Coin Market Cap, and the highest price it reached this period was actually $91.32 which is very impressive. Okay so the following reasons that I have on why Bitcoin is down this past week is due to the following. The first reason as I just talked about, relates to profit taking and this ICO ban coming from China which basically has spooked the whole asian market. And when Asia panics, prices start to tumble. The second reason is the fear of more government regulation and scrutiny over cryptocurrencies. You have countries not just in the US but China and other nations in Eastern Europe having to post warnings on some of the ICOs out there. My own personal opinion is that we need regulation but not to a point where it stifles innovation, growth, and development. So what do I mean by that… There has to be a balance between all the various stakeholders involved. This includes you and me in addition to the companies and governments interacting within this space. But I think most people can agree that most of these ICOs should be scrutinized to determine if there is fraudulent activities and involvement. Now I am not sure how new policies will look because again anyone can come up with their own version of Bitcoin. I do think the public has to be made aware of the various alternatives out there and perform their own research. I can give you my some of my personal advice on what I look for in an ICO. I want to know exactly who is involved and to what extent. I also want to know if there are any companies backing the project. As a person who has been in this space for a few years, I can tell you that it is important that new investors coming into the crypto market must learn and try to understand the people and characters involved in the space along with integrity. And I bring up integrity because there are some bad people and actors in the market that you should avoid. And I will not name names but I would ask you the viewers to do research on coins, tokens by just typing ‘scam icos, coins, etc…” into you Browser and simply ask around the crypto market space on what people think about these companies.. Via btc_joe @ Twitter So those are my two main reasons. If you guys have any ideas, please let me know as well. I definitely would like to know you think. I also want to say that I watch this show on YouTube called the ‘Crypto News Network.’ There is a guy named Vinny Lingham. He was on the show this past Friday and stated something to the effect of mentioning how Bitcoin needs to be boring. He says he enjoyed the days when no one really talked about Bitcoin when it was relatively flat. Today with Bitcoin moving up in price, he finds himself always having to stay glued to his computer. And quite frankly, I also feel the same way. With the price action on all these cryptocurrencies going higher and higher, everyone including myself is having to constantly keep up with the news, headlines, and all the government involvement out there. To a certain point, it gets too much and so one has to take a break for awhile, breath, and get re-energized. **NEO Fud And talking about taking a break, I think it’s time we dive into the Matrix by talking about NEO. There was a whole bunch of FUD this past week surrounding NEO.Turns out the start of the FUD may have originated from Coin Telegraph, which is an online news media that focuses extensively on cryptocurrencies. Coin Telegraph mentioned in one of their articles how the Chinese crackdown on ICOs will impact NEO. So when this news came out, it first resulted in a snowball effect that cascaded to online news outlets and YouTubers who were obvious Ethereum fans. They all started touting and bashing NEO. I thought this whole NEO news at first was interesting or fascinating because the Chinese government never said anything about cracking down or eliminating all ICOs initially. But anyway, this whole news brought the price of NEO down to where it is now trading around the $20.00 region. And what I find interesting is that Coin Telegraph had to come out again with another article on how the Chinese regulation will be good for NEO. I think what Coin Telegraph was trying to do was amend things there. So if you have been keeping up with news coming from my channel, this is the same exact stuff that I posted last week. I mentioned how the Chinese regulation would help the cryptocurrency eco-system because it makes bad actors think twice, and it would also force people and companies looking to create their own ICOs to follow a blueprint, model, and go through certain checks. And maybe not ask for an insane amount of money. This regulation brought by the Chinese government in turn would help NEO because new ICOs that want to create smart contracts on NEOs platform will have go through some vetting process. This would weed out ICO bums looking to jump into the cryptocurrency market, create their dummy smart contracts, and place it onto a billion dollar platform like NEO and just sit there idle, eating up bandwidth that more qualified ICOs could have gotten. So in a way, a regulation like this from the Chinese government lessens inefficiencies in the market. Via btc_joe @ Twitter And this whole Fud stuff that goes around in the cryptocurrency space should make people aware about the cryptocurrency environment. There are bad actors out there that will run with bad news and place even more factious headlines to be disseminated by the public who do not know what they hell is going on. And so what you had this week was some Ethereum people trying to use NEO fud to go against NEO. And there was also Bitcoin people out there guilty of doing this. To think that the Chinese government would ever do something to tout innovation would be like the Japanese stop producing electronics. It would be utterly mind-boggling and silly. Via btc_joe @ Twitter So let’s take a break from NEO and talk about what is going with cryptocurrencies with respect to Africa where it's used mainly for remittances. But what I find funny is how these different markets view cryptocurrencies. You have Asia where its mostly speculative. In the US and west, cryptocurrencies are seen as an investment. An in South America and Africa, Bitcoin is used for remittances. In Eastern Europe, cryptocurrencies are seen as tech startups. But turning our focus back to Africa, I will now start out with South Africa, where a headline came out on how residents of that country could be paying up to 35% more for Bitcoin in that region. The article mentions the reason for this is due to the lack of supply of Bitcoin. So what buyers have to do is make deals with sellers for Bitcoin at a high premium. And I understand that this is bad news for buyers out there as issues like this in a “free market” should foster more competition. And I would say for anyone out there is South Africa who is having to pay a 35% premium on Bitcoin to please do research on other exchanges out there. Paying 35% premium is crazy. If Internet access is not reliable, then I would go old school and ask around. But before I deliver on more suggestions, please make sure you follow the laws of your government. If you are not allowed to transfer Bitcoin to certain places, then do not do so. This channel does not advocate that you break the law. So with that said, if you have Bitcoin, you can transfer the currency literally anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. There are plenty of folks online who would be interested in buying and selling bitcoin. But I know in some places in Africa, it might be tough to do so as internet access is some places is not reliable or it is very expensive but with the advent of cell-phone technology, I think we will see this Bitcoin problem in South Africa slowly start to correct itself. And a price premium of 35% should incentivize more companies and exchanges to come and invest more into South Africa. I know there are definitely a couple of exchanges out there like ICE3X that offer not just Bitcoin but also Ethereum and Litecoin at a decent price. And given how South Africa pretty much leads the in terms of GDP, I cannot imagine how or why there are some people paying this high premium. It just does not make any sense to me. If there is anyone in South Africa listening to this and if you have any thoughts of what is going on, please let me know the situation within that country, I would be glad to understand. You can simply leave something in the comments section, and I promise to get back to you. And still on Africa, this now brings me into news about Kenya. An article about Kenya reads “Bitcoin Payment Firm BitPesa Secures Greycroft As Lead Investor For $10 Million...”[3] For people who do not know BitPesa, they enable companies to make payments to and from Africa. This move comes at a time where cryptocurrencies is becoming more popular in Africa where people use it as a means to trade, given how their local currencies is more suspect and inflated. If you have being paying attention to my channel, this move should not be a surprise as a few more cryptocurrency exchanges have recently jumped into the African landscape in the past several months. And though the Bitcoin trading volume at these exchanges are relatively small in size, one cannot ignore the growth and the need for better transaction systems in the African region. Also the concept of Bitcoin being a store of value comes very handy especially when one's own currency gets devalued overtime. And it’s not just BitPesa making moves in Africa. You have foreign companies from places like India, for example Bitfrics looking to set up an their exchange within the region of Kenya. Bitfrics was even as bold as to state that their goal is to have 1 million new African customers within the next several years. And lastly I want to cover news from Zimbabwe & Tanzainia where Llew Classen, the Bitcoin Foundation boss urges cautious investment in cryptocurrencies. Llew urges that people should invest no more than they can afford in the crypto space right now. He was speaking at a TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania about the potential for Bitcoin in Africa. And in fact I have to agree with him. With so much investment in cryptocurrency technology in Africa, folks need to be more cautious. And even with Bitcoin at its current price, there are people buying this cryptocurrency at it’s all time high for fear of missing out which I can understand. But the mentality of people buying into this space at such a high cost, a huge chunk are new investor pouring a lot of money into the space. Therefore when there is panic, you typically have huge flight away from Bitcoin and money moving out of the system and back to fiat. And hence this is the reason we see a major price correction like today. Currently there is definitely Bitcoin activity going on the area of Zimbabwe and Tanzania. It is nothing to get excited as I think the volume as of today is about $4k which again is nothing to boast about. But relatively speaking, the year over year Bitcoin volume in that region has steadily increased which I believe would make a strong bullish case. Alright...That’s all I have for this segment ladies and gentlemen. If you want me to look at any specific country in detail as it relates to cryptocurrencies, please let me know. My only restriction is that the country must be in the areas I cover on this channel such as Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and South Asian Pacific. And lastly, If you like this content, please click the Like button on YouTube. You can also Upvote/Re-Steem this content on Steemit. For new people, you can also choose to follow me here on Steemit or subscribe on YouTube. So please feel free to post your questions below. And I promise to get back to you all.