Volatility is Nothing New with Bitcoin,

[Cryptoverse]

"Volatility is a feature, not a bug" goes a common saying. I write this as Bitcoin, once again, is experiencing notable downward selling pressure. Who is selling? Overleveraged positions? That's a possibility. With spot Bitcoin ETFs hitting the market (and their option derivatives), a new angle has entered the Bitcoin trading market. What that means is that the price will be more volatile than ever with more money entering the arena. The gains will be larger than ever, as we saw earlier this year when BTC briefly kissed $126k. But that also means the losses will be steeper too.

So what has happened in the past twenty four hours that may be responsible for the accelerated selling?

• Japan's 10-year bond yield rose to over 1.85% and its 2-year rose above 1.00% -- both the highest since 2006 and 2007, respectively
• Rising government bonds of Japan often signal a "risk-off" environment
• Historically, this "risk-off" environment leads to a sell-off in high risk investments, like technology stocks and cryptocurrencies

If you know me, you know that I don't like to be a price prognosticator. I'll leave that to the talking heads. However, I would like to point out a few "black swan" events that could lead to an even greater crypto winter. Yes, this is FUD, but you can't look through rose-coloured glasses all the time and need to be a realist.

• A potential collapse of Strategy (though they just came out today stating they're holding $1.44 billion in a US dollar cash reserve)
• Tether becoming insolvent (less likely, due to them holding 116 metric tons of gold -- currently worth roughly $12 billion)
• A liquidity crisis of any major crypto exchange, caused by an extreme sell-off

These are just a few potential scenarios. Let me emphasize again: I'm not predicting a price, nor price direction of Bitcoin, just outlining possibilities to advance a conversation. What do you think? Leave a comment below to add to the discussion.