Crypto Crash has happened July 2021

Crypto Crash is happening, but has it bottomed out?

Cryptocurrency has been riding a wave of fame in 2021. With crypto being used as cash to buy major things like cars, vacations, and even basketball tickets—it’s safe to say it’s had quite the run this year. Well, that was until the end of June when we saw a crypto crash.

Look, we won’t say we told you so—but, well, we kind of did. No matter how you slice it, cryptocurrency is up and down like a playground seesaw it is a gambler gold mine and a savvy investor’s nightmare but it has made people rich and will continue to do so for years to come.

Okay, first things first—we have to talk about what crypto is. Cryptocurrency is basically just digital money. You can think of it like virtual cash that you keep in a digital wallet online. This digital cash can be used for investing and even online purchases. Did you catch all the times we said “virtual” and “digital” there? Yep, that’s right—crypto money exists only on the web. You’ll never see a physical coin of any kind (unless you cash it out for real money).

Here’s the thing—this stuff is all over the place, and nobody knows when crypto will crash or skyrocket. Ah, the joy of investing. But here’s what we do know: Putting your bets on cryptocurrency is a big risk. And crypto coins have taken a major nose dive lately thanks to China’s central bank cracking down on cryptocurrency trading and mining.

See, right now, banks and governments are pretty much out of the picture when it comes to cryptocurrency (meaning it’s been decentralized). And the fact that it’s decentralized by those powers that be makes people that much more interested in buying it. So who keeps tabs on cryptocurrency? Crypto exists on something called a blockchain—a database or ledger of sorts that keeps track of ownership without banks and governments watching.

For the top dog Bitcoin, this crypto crash meant that it lost all of the major gains it had made in 2021 as it fell below $30,000 (its all-time high was $65,000 back in March).2 So, all those news-making, attention-grabbing headlines about how much Bitcoin had gone up this year? Yeah. Consider that all wiped out.

Other big names in crypto took a tumble too, with Ethereum dropping to $1,730 (its lowest since March 2021) and Dogecoin nose-diving to 0.17 cents (its all-time high was 0.74 earlier in 2021).

That’s the way the crypto cookie crumbles. This is why investing your life savings in cryptocurrency is a bad idea. You never know when the rug will be pulled out from under you since crypto is so unstable.

So from Elon Musk and other celebrities talking about Crypto why is it such a Big Deal This Year?

Well, if you’ve been riding the crypto train for a while (like the diehards out there), then it’s always been a big deal to you. But there’s no denying that cryptocurrency has had some major wins this year that put it on everyone’s radar.

Social media meme stocks took over.

It’s clear that when a group of people on the internet band together to buy something that’s pretty random, it’s hard to stop them. Enter meme stocks.

Back in January and February 2021, GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry stock jumped out of nowhere—all because people on the web joined forces to invest in companies that the big hedge fund guys were betting against. So instead of people investing in a stock because it’s doing really well, people invest in it because of its buildup on social media. That’s pretty much the definition of what a meme stock is.

And just like our favorite stories where the underdog comes out on top—it actually happened. The Reddit trend investors transformed these stocks that others had written off into big-time moneymakers. BlackBerry’s stock tripled, and AMC’s was worth 10 times more than it had been. But GameStop outdid them all by going up hundreds of dollars in just a couple of days. On January 21, GameStop shares were $39, but fast-forward less than a week later and it jumped to $355!

Then in the spring of 2021, Dogecoin started its big push “to the moon”—aka trying to drive its price up past $1. And it worked . . . almost. With each tweet from Elon Musk and all the news coverage around it, the Doge climbed all the way to a high of 0.74 cents. Even though they didn’t hit the full one-dollar goal, they made a joke stock go from zero to hero pretty quick.

So, what’s the future hold for meme stocks? Well, it’s probably not over yet. A recent survey showed that 42% of average-day traders are influenced by social media when it comes to deciding which investments to bet on. What’s that mean in plain English? Folks are listening to what’s trending on social media.

Cryptocurrency is being accepted as payment at more places.

Crypto started to look like more of a legit investment to people when big names like PayPal, Overstock, and even Tesla started to accept cryptocurrency as payment (Tesla has since changed its mind on accepting crypto . . . for now). All of a sudden, cryptocurrency has become more of a household name as companies keep saying they’ll take it as payment for your purchases.