I'm thinking it is the miners dumping their mined coins and bringing the price down. But on a positive note it does give people a chance who want to own a masternode to now get one which is what has been happening for weeks now. Solaris now has over 600 masternodes online when before at the start of the year we were at just a little over 500 masternodes online so that is an extra 100 masternodes in just over a month and all that happened in the past 3 weeks or so since the price starting coming down. So in away the price being dumped by miners does help people who want a cheaper masternode. I'm sure that in time the price will slowly start to go back up once the POW ends in April.
It is probably miners or masternodes' owners tried to cause out to get their capital back or for electricity bills, which in turn dumped the price. Nevertheless, in long-term, it is good project, and as you said the price will significantly rally when PoS start in April.
So is it still profitable for mining? If miners had tried to cash out all their coins, what is residue of motivation to make its price flourishing again? I think Dev should implement some bounties for community asap, which help Solaris popularity spreading out.
I think... NO, I'm sure, that HODling has ended for most. I think it is the last month situation when Bitcoin more than halved in value so most miners and traders cash out to avoid losses. Most miners mine for profit, not for love to the coin which is what I do too however I believed in this coin and it went high to 55$ a coin but it dropped relatively quickly together with bitcoin. Why? Miners and traders feared the losses will eat their portfolios. Not many continue holding and even some masternode owners cashed their masternodes out which brought the price even lower.
I watched a short film by a Polish guy regarding the Bitcoin prices and why it is going down. His theory was based on last month market research which proved there was a lot more hashing power mining bitcoin than it was officially possible meaning bitmain or Baikal or maybe someone else has new mining equipment that hasn't been shared with anyone else. They created smaller, faster chips using less power allowing them to mine at 27 or 54Th/s per unit. Current fastest ones we know about mine at 14Th/s. Total network Hashrate rose by a lot making it obvious something is going on behind the scenes. Simply said - those companies won't share their secret as long as it is profitable and will only start selling the new miners when profitability drops to star working on newer, faster miners. They sell their mined bitcoins immediately at any market price to cash out as soon as possible which is bringing the prices down, no holding is happening here which is what we all should do to a point.
He proved prices always dropped before new antminers and other stuff were available to buy as those producers milked them first before sharing with the world and selling them making money once again. The prices rose when profitability of such miners dropped which may be the case again in the next few months. So we should expect the bitcoin price go up again until they design new improved devices.
There is a long list of calculations proving this theory and it looks like this is happening all over the crypto market. Miners all over the world cash out not really allowing the prices to grow. One reason is the energy cost but it is a stupid reason as to be honest I could cover my monthly bill with just one day mining and right now because of what miners do it takes me 2-3ys which is still very profitable. This is mainly due to PVC panels on my roof which provide me with free power during the day.
So my conclusion is = even if the guy is wrong he is not totally wrong and miners cash out quickly meaning if you want your profits take them now. I am not asking anyone to dump any coins. It is necessary for the coin to be less available as supply in order for the price to rise significantly which may happen but remember once the price goes up people will start cashing out again and prices will drop again.