Mainstream Media Praises Bitcoin, then Serves a "Cautionary Tale!"

When it comes to the cryptocurrency market, the mainstream media can't leave well enough alone. This was quite apparent in bitcoin's dramatic surge to $2,500. Yesterday, CNBC reported on the wild price swings of the cryptocurrency, proclaiming that bitcoin "plummets $200 in 4 hours" while later recovering the lost valuation. Such choppiness, the business media outlet asserts, "serves as a cautionary tale."

Really? Whenever the mainstream media reports on bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, they tend to focus on nominal price points. The $200 plunge sounds dramatic, but the context is missing -- from where bitcoin was before the drop, this volatility is only around 9% in magnitude. Granted, a 9% loss is nothing to laugh about, but chalking this up to a cautionary tale implies ignorance of the underlying market.

Anyone that has a modicum of involvement in cryptocurrencies understands that money moves lightning quick in the digital markets. A 9% loss or gain can occur while you're taking a leak in the restroom. For most of us Americans, we buy our cryptocurrencies before we hit the hay knowing full well that in a few hours, the full fury of eastern hemisphere investor sentiment could launch our portfolio to the moon.

Of course, it could also go the other way. But that is the price of entry -- high risk for high reward. CNBC calling bitcoin a cautionary tale is akin to progressives labeling the AR15 rifle as a weapon of mass destruction. As we are reminded so often, the gun won't kill on its own.

Furthermore, what makes the broader stock market such a wonderful place? It was less than ten years ago that the entire global system nearly collapsed because of the stock market. Most people have risk capital vested in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency markets. In sharp contrast, millions of Americans have the majority of their retirement savings vested in the stock market through mutual funds and ETFs.

Now tell me, who needs the cautionary tale?

The CNBC article can be found here -- http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/bitcoin-plummets-200-in-4-hours-then-recovers-in-wild-trading.html