What's happening?!

This is text I usually receive from numerous friends when bitcoin and cryptos are "crashing". I typically respond the same, stating yes it's going down but long term I believe the blockchain space as a whole will be valued by multiples of 5 to 50x higher.

Fortunately this time there are two clear reasons as to why we are seeing a pullback.

1.) Everything ran too fast.

Even with a healthy pullback, we are still in a bullish trend (according to technical analysis). Bitcoin can drop to 1200 and it will still be up 100% from a year ago. Chart posted by the wolf on twitter:

2.) China bans ICOs

There is no question that ICOs have taken the startup investment/funding world by storm. One of the reasons ICOs/Token Sales have risen in popularity so quickly is that they allow anyone from anywhere to invest. You don't have to be an accredited investor, you don't have to be in a particular region, or affiliated with a VC. Anyone with some bitcoin or ethereum can invest in most ICOs. With that said, China banning ICOs, is just accelerating the healthy pullback. In reality, it will have little effect on those that want to join ICOs from China. There are many ways for investors there to join via VPN and other methods.

Take a step back and enjoy the ride

It's easy to get caught up in the day to day, with all the price volatility and swings. What's hard to appreciate is just how early this still is. Fred Ehrsam, cofounder of Coinbase, puts things in perspective nicely.

-Paz