GDAX makes a run at 20k - hitting 19697. Was the exchange actually working at the time though?
I did see reports that the API was unavailable for 30 minutes during the peak. Also that the exchange was heavily overloaded and difficult to use for much of the day. Bitfinex was under heavy DDoS attack all day and difficult to use for long periods as well.
There is a rumor that whales are buying with plans of dumping when futures are open. While I normally ignore rumors, this one makes some sense. The futures won't be backed by actual bitcoins (right?),
Technically correct but as futures contracts are deliverable many market participants will be using them to hedge actual Bitcoin positions.
so you could possibly make more money on the futures than you lose from selling your bitcoins.
Quite possible as the leverage will be much higher.
Though I am expecting the futures to be underused compared to the hype.
I would agree there but it is an unknown and I'll be watching with interest.
I think we we already have most of the wall street money - and most of the remaining players are going to need a lot of convincing (and probably more stability) to get in. And if the futures lack volume this plan won't work. Though it is likely to dump/crash for other reasons.
Most of the Wall Street money is excluded at the moment. Hedge funds can play but major investment funds, pension funds etc. can't play. Futures don't change that in themselves but are the first step to making Bitcoin a legitimate investment. I would expect ETFs and other investment vehicles to be launched, this will be a gradual process.
For instance, three family members who I talk to have been saying I should "sell" forever. They still say "sell". They aren't going to buy an asset that increased by 20x in the past year. Of course they are more risk adverse.
It looks like you have a great contrarian indicator there, you know what to do when they buy.
