> When he bought his stash, the price of a single litecoin was $67
> He sold his holdings on Dec. 12 when litecoin was worth $387, a 570 percent gain
$387 is a 470% gain from $67 not 570%.
> He sold his holdings on Dec. 12 when litecoin was worth $387, a 570 percent gain
$387 is a 470% gain from $67 not 570%.
His math can be explained but a common misconception when buying coins: Whales move the market. It's impossible to place a six-figure order and get them all for the same price. Simply placing an order that larger disrupts supply and demand enough that multiple sellers are required to cover, sometimes hundreds if your order is filled my small fish.
What's most likely is he placed numerous 'smaller' orders over a period of a few days and only gave the price of $67 as the highest he/she paid. Probably loads of coins at much smaller levels and averaged out the returns to 570%.
The most likely explanation is the majority of bloomberg reports know almost nothing about finance or math. Unfortunately and sadly it's still some of the best finance journalism available as there's little competition.
The burned traders phenomenon could become a problem for the bitcoin community though few will talk about it. As even if the price recovers after a drop the people who thought they could trade it and lost money when they sold during a short term drop often leave the market and don't return. The same phenomenon happens in the stock market, and stock trading is a ginormous industry compared to bitcoin...amateur traders lose money trading stocks, they leave the market and never return. It's a problem..cue up the next E-Trade baby commercial ASAP! [1]
The Bitcoin big money now knows they need to control the volatility and spend hard and fast on marketing their trading platforms to new people constantly. And that's exactly what these guys behind the scenes appear to be trying to do. Hence we end up with articles like this one: Bloomberg writing about "Bitcoin Traders Claim..." that's basically one interview (at a coffee shop) with one random dude in his early 20s who trades bitcoin in his spare time. Who is the target audience for this 5th grade book report journalism? The churn will be huge.