{"id":43818,"date":"2026-02-07T17:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=43818"},"modified":"2026-02-07T17:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:15:26","slug":"currency-always-has-costs-ctd-58","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2026\/02\/07\/currency-always-has-costs-ctd-58\/","title":{"rendered":"Currency Always Has Costs, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of days ago I <a href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2026\/02\/05\/currency-always-has-costs-ctd-57\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">commented<\/a> on <em><strong>Bitcoin&#8217;s<\/strong><\/em> recent slide. Yesterday I went looking for explanatory incidents.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Bitcoin<\/strong><\/em> seems static, give or take, since Thursday. Nothing on the web really stood out for me, which in some ways is even more disturbing. This morning Molly White&#8217;s (no relation) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.web3isgoinggreat.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Web3 is Going Just Great<\/strong><\/em><\/a> reported a $44 billion hiccup for Korea&#8217;s <em><strong>Bithumb<\/strong><\/em> exchange, but most of that was quickly recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Still, smaller incidents (call it <em>thievery<\/em>) keep on occurring, and I&#8217;m thinking that current cryptocurrency users are beginning to transition to <em>past tense<\/em>, having tired of watching, or even experiencing, losses in their and others&#8217; &#8216;virtual assets&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>And then there&#8217;s this:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p data-eci=\"true\">Richard Farr, chief market strategist and partner at Pivotus Partners, has issued a stark prediction for Bitcoin (<a title=\"Bitcoin USD\" href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/symbol\/BTC-USD#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews\">BTC-USD<\/a>), setting a price target of zero for the cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur BTC price target is 0.0. That\u2019s not just for shock factor. It\u2019s where the<span class=\"paywall-full-content invisible\">\u00a0math takes us,\u201d the strategist said, noting that Bitcoin (<\/span><a class=\"paywall-full-content invisible\" title=\"Bitcoin USD\" href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/symbol\/BTC-USD#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews\">BTC-USD<\/a><span class=\"paywall-full-content invisible\">) has failed to function as a dollar hedge and instead operates as \u201ca speculative instrument correlated to the Nasdaq.\u201d &#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall-full-content invisible\">The strategist also criticized Bitcoin\u2019s environmental impact, stating that miners \u201care bleeding cash\u201d while the network remains \u201chorribly inefficient as a transaction processor and wastes tremendous amounts of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall-full-content invisible\">Farr\u2019s assessment aligns with warnings from Michael Burry, the investor known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, who cautioned that falling Bitcoin (<a title=\"Bitcoin USD\" href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/symbol\/BTC-USD#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews\">BTC-USD<\/a>) prices could trigger a self-reinforcing \u201cdeath spiral.\u201d<em> [<a href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/news\/4547997-bitcoin-s-price-target-at-zero?source=apple_news%253Anews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Seeking Alpha<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I have no idea who might be <em><strong>Pivotus Partners<\/strong><\/em>, but I cannot help but pay attention as the above remarks concerning cryptocurrency&#8217;s functionality, external costs, and volatility has a strong correlation with my own observations over the years.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, I&#8217;m sure glad I&#8217;m not in cryptocurrency because the speculators, and if you use cryptocurrency, don&#8217;t kid yourself, you&#8217;re a speculator, may be riding a raft into a real maelstrom of disaster. Right now it appears they may have sprung a leak.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2026\/02\/05\/bitcoin-prices-falling-cryptocurrency-markets-investment\/d4701ada-02ad-11f1-ad9f-6f689ec6b060_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">summary<\/a> provided by WaPo, itself perhaps swirling around in a vortex of doom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of days ago I commented on Bitcoin&#8217;s recent slide. Yesterday I went looking for explanatory incidents. Bitcoin seems static, give or take, since Thursday. Nothing on the web really stood out for me, which in some ways is even more disturbing. This morning Molly White&#8217;s (no relation) Web3 \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2026\/02\/07\/currency-always-has-costs-ctd-58\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43819,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818\/revisions\/43819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}