[PlateOfShrimp]

I have no opinion or stake in this game, but considering that Bitcoin was considered to be a “bubble” when it was at $100, and likewise at $1000, I am not sure I would call dropping back to “only” $10k to be an “apocalypse”

[NorseViking]

Wait till it would be back to $11 and think about people who bought for $11000.

[Rockingham]

Riding a speculative bubble up and getting out before it pops is hard to do. A change in trend can be forecast with some certainty, but timing is exceptionally hard. In the long run though, the odds are that bitcoin and other privately issued currencies will be crushed by governments because they are all too conducive to black markets and tax evasion and deprive governments of seigniorage revenue and control of the money supply.

In the meantime, before governments lower the boom, fortunes will be made and lost on bitcoin and other crypto currencies. The underlying blockchain technology is promising for many applications, and governments seem likely to eventually develop block chain versions of their own currencies -- provided they control issuance and have complete access to the transaction ledger. That will improve economic efficiency -- in part by cutting banks off from much of their traditional fee income on transactions.