Before USDT and exchanges: how people bought BTC and other coins
Before the emergence of stablecoins (such as USDT, USDC, etc.), cryptocurrency was bought and sold directly for fiat money (dollars, euros, rubles, etc.) or through barter schemes between different crypto assets. Here are the main methods: ⸻ 1. Fiat → Cryptocurrency • People used bank transfers, credit cards, or even cash to buy BTC or ETH on centralized exchanges (e.g., Mt. Gox, LocalBitcoins, Bitstamp).
PEPE is one of the most popular meme coins of 2024–2025. But will it ever reach $1? The short answer is no. And here’s why: ⸻ 1. Huge emission: the numbers don’t lie PEPE has 420 trillion tokens in circulation. At the current price of $0.00001, its market capitalization is around $4.2 billion — about the same as Solana.
How to understand that BTC has reached the bottom and this is a good point for averaging?
To determine the potential market bottom for BTC, it's important to consider several factors. Here are the main methods that can help identify the optimal moment for purchasing:
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1. Technical indicators:
📉 RSI (Relative Strength Index) • RSI below 30 → indicates oversold conditions of the asset.
1. General market background • Market cap: $3.30 trillion (+1.08%) – growth continues, but is slowing. • Fear and Greed Index: 71 (Greed) – the market is overheated, high probability of a sharp correction. • CMC100 (liquid top 100): $202.59 (+0.73%) - alts rebound, but weakly. • Alt Season Index: 35/100 – no alt season, bitcoin dominates.
The trader deposited 1.21 million USDC on Hyperliquid — this is his collateral (margin).
Let's break down this case step by step: what the trader did, what his goals are, and what risks he took. ⸻ What happened? 1. The trader deposited 1.21 million USDC on Hyperliquid — this is his collateral (margin). 2. Opened a short position at $SOL with 20x leverage: • This means that with $1.21 million he 'borrowed' about $16M to play for a decline in the price of SOL.
📌 Why is there never a situation on the exchange where there is "not enough money" to pay winnings?
This is an important question, and here is the clearest explanation: The exchange organizes trading based on the principle of a futures contract (Perpetual Futures). This means that for every short (bet on a decrease), there is always a long (bet on an increase). In other words, there are always two sides to the transaction: • Someone bets that the price will rise (long) • Someone bets that the price will fall (short).