Hard Times: How Much Money Has Been Lost in Bitcoin in 2018

If you blinked in 2017 and opened your eyes at the end of 2018, then we have some important news for you!

• The first. You can no longer write a White Paper for your breakthrough project, even if you believe it will go ICO. A great idea, which made it possible to collect funds, without the red tape and grandiose investments, is hopelessly discredited — unprincipled guys have already taken everything that could be squeezed out of this idea and sailed away on snow-white yachts into the sunset, to drive a fiery-red Ferrari or lemon yellow Lamborghini. Those who were lucky, of course. The rest, apparently, rest in peace.
  

• The second. John McAfee postponed the date of his culinary show with homemade delicacies until 2020. Perhaps, he hopes we’ve forgotten but we still remember.

• The third. Centralization faced decentralization in a deadly fight, and won it. Crypto community is looking forward to the institutional investors (ETF!) to come to the market: they will bring money, they will breathe life into the dying amusement park — and the coloured lights will be switched on, merry-go-rounds will roll around again and funny clowns (see point 2) will go on with their performance.
  

• The fourth. Bitcoin Cash is no longer “the same real Bitcoin”, created by Satoshi Nakamoto. No longer. Now there is even more “that very” Bitcoin on the market — Bitcoin SV. And to prove this, after the hard fork, the creators staged a hash war with the first one and used the heavy artillery — “attack 51%”. It didn’t work out, but all the crypto community immediately believed — yes, they are real. Whatever it was, Bitcoin SV entrenched firmly in the top ten cryptocurrencies by capitalization, promising huge blocks and quick astronomical profits for the miners.
  

• The fifth. Care how much money have you lost in bitcoin in 2018? There are some guys who have lost more. Check it out.
  

Billionaire losers

Chris Larsen is one of the founders and a former CEO of Ripple. In January 2018, he was among the five richest people on the planet, and his wealth in XRP tokens alone was estimated at $17.2 billion. 

The current wealth of Chris Larsen is estimated at 2.1 billion dollars — it’s only 383 place on the Forbes list.

In 2007 Michael Novogratz, an ex-partner of Goldman Sachs, was a billionaire. In 2016-2017 earned $ 250 million in cryptocurrency. 

However, in 2018, during the first nine months, Galaxy Digital Assets (the company managed by Novogratz) has already lost $ 136 million.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, founder of ConsenSys, is also a former Goldman Sachs employee. According to Forbes, at the beginning of 2018, his wealth was estimated at 1-5 billion dollars in cryptocurrency. 

The price of Ethereum has decreased by about ten times from January to December, therefore, the current cryptocurrency state of Lubin is $100-500 million.

Vitalik Buterin is another founder of Ethereum. It was believed that his state of cryptocurrency at the beginning of the year was about to $400-500 million. 

With the help of simple calculations, we can find out the current figures: 40-50 million dollars in Ethereum.

Ian Balina is a crypto enthusiast, a crypto blogger, a crypto youtuber and a crypto investor. During one of his broadcasts, Balina learned the latest news from the viewers of the channel — someone was withdrawing funds from his wallet. 

How many lost money in bitcoin this year — you have just to guess, and Ian Balina joined them. According to a crypto investor, about two million dollars in a cryptocurrency have been stolen from him. It is probably worth believing this crypto blogger, though, he is not very worried about the loss, because this was a good lesson for him.

Mark Dow is an economist, a former employee of the IMF — he is the person we wouldn’t like to gain profit on Bitcoin.  But Mark won: his short position against BTC in December 2017 was closed by himself a year later. Dow bet that Bitcoin would fall in price after an unprecedented rise. And was right.

Well, congratulations to Mark — at least someone had a successful crypto year along all those whines about how much money has been lost in bitcoin!

What did the media buzz about?

The rulers of the minds were heating up the situation: unrestrained optimists against the gloomy messengers of the coming sunset. In early 2018, both were ready to go. Can you guess who gained the upper hand? Nevertheless, let’s pay some respect to the first ones: they stoof their ground.Властители умов гнали волну за волной: безудержные оптимисты против мрачных вестников грядущего заката. В начале 2018 года оба лагеря зарядили полные обоймы и вышли в чистое поле. Вы догадываетесь, кто из них лихим ковбойским жестом сдул дым из ствола в декабре, а кому понадобились носилки? Верно. Но отдадим должное первым – они стояли до последнего.

One of the Winklevoss brothers, Tyler, after the attacks of Bill Gates and the statement about his desire to play for a fall against Bitcoin, advises the billionaire to put his money in his mouth.

The joker Elon Musk did not stay away from the crypto world. At first, he wanted to buy Ether, even if it was a scam.

And then, Elon wanted to sell bitcoins, and it provoked the blocking of his account on Twitter. The administration of the social network did not believe that Musk had written it himself.

Nuriel Roubini, an influential economist, known as “Dr. Doom” — oh yes, he “loves” Bitcoin and can’t even pass it by, if there is an opportunity to poke it with a stick.

Jack Ma, a very rich Chinese businessman, founder and leader of the Alibaba Group has paid attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrency several times. From his statements, it can be concluded that Bitcoin is, of course, a bubble, but blockchain is promising.

I would like to complete this article with some positive forecast, to give myself and readers hope for the future. Why not contact the Israeli officials? Surely they have good news for us! 

Or not. The former prime minister of this country, Ehud Barak, believes that the blockchain is okay, while Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrencies are a pyramid. Well, did not work out? Maybe it is worth making another attempt? But what does the current Prime Minister say?

Benjamin Netanyahu reflects on the fact that banks will someday disappear, and Bitcoin can be a substitute for them. Perhaps, we’ve had enough and it’s time to stop. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. We also hope that everything will be fine. One way or another, but it will be.