Trading Bitcoin is Not Easy
Trading Bitcoin is not easy most people lose money, KXCO takes a look at why.
Roughly three-quarters of people who have traded bitcoin have lost money according to a study published Monday as the cryptocurrency sector reels from the collapse of a major exchange that has sapped confidence.
Economists at the Bank of International Settlements, an institution widely considered as the central banks of central banks, analysed data on investors in cryptocurrencies in 95 countries between 2015 and 2022.
"Overall, back of the envelope calculations suggest that around three-quarters of users have lost money on their bitcoin investments," they said in their study.
During the period studied, the price of bitcoin rose from $250 in August 2015 to peak at nearly $69,000 in November 2021. It is now trading at around $16,500.
The number of people using smartphone apps allowing one to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies rose from 119,000 to 32.5 million during the same period.
"Our analysis has shown that, around the world, bitcoin price increases have been tied to greater entry by retail investors," the researchers wrote.
Moreover, they said they found that "as prices were rising and smaller users were buying bitcoin, the largest holders (the so-called 'whales' or 'humpbacks') were selling –- making a return at the smaller users’ expense."
The researchers did not have direct data on the gains or losses of individual investors. However, they were able to extrapolate based on the price of bitcoin when new investors began using cryptocurrency trading apps and the approximately $20,000 it was worth last month.
The study also found that the biggest segment of new cryptocurrency investors, at roughly 40 percent, were men under 35, and who are commonly identified as the most "risk-seeking" segment of the population.
Researchers found most cryptocurrency investors saw it as a speculative investment and that young men tended to be more active in trading in the months after a big rise in the bitcoin price.
They said the jump in investors after price increases should raise concerns whether more consumer protection is needed.
Quantum Cybersecurity: The KXCO Chain Is Already Running
The World Economic Forum warned on 11 September that the quantum-safe race has changed gears. It is right about the direction and late about the work. Every KXCO product already runs on NIST's post-quantum algorithms, and all of them run on the same implementation: 42 package manifests declare one library. The chain verifies ML-DSA-65 on-chain at precompile 0x0b, tested live with three negative controls. NIST's own grader marked the library at 2,130 cases and zero failures.
NIST Graded Our Post-Quantum Cryptography. Zero Failures.
NIST's Algorithm Validation Test System generated test vectors nobody had seen, we answered them over the ACVP protocol, and NIST graded the result: 2,130 cases across ML-KEM, ML-DSA and SLH-DSA in every parameter set offered, zero failures, demo certificate A11025. This is what that proves, where we deliberately drew the claim narrower than NIST's own matrix, and why the FIPS 140-2 sunset on 21 September makes the distinction between being graded and grading yourself worth understanding.
The Problem Is Not the Problem
People treat the Jack Sparrow line as a joke. The attribution is a joke. The sentence is not. Forty years in markets says the same thing Epictetus said in 125 CE and Robert Merton named in 1948: the event is finite, and the story you appoint to govern it is not. This essay walks the quote back to its actual sources, draws the loop that turns a feeling into an order, and sets out the four places a rule written in advance cuts the loop. Faith is not a hedge. It is a stance.
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