Cryptos, the Emerging Trend of Pre-announcement Pumps, and EMC2

Traders who have dabbled in altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies, basically anything that’s not bitcoin) for just over a month have had multiple experiences with a new phenomenon in the crypto space: pre-announcements.

What is a pre-announcement?

It’s an enigmatic announcement about an upcoming announcement, which leaves buyers/users with nothing more than their wild imaginations. Case in point, Einsteinium’s announcement on November 30TH about an announcement on December 19TH:

The pre-announcement for EMC2, complete with the image of a Macbook Pro laptop, became so viral and speculative that EMC2 had to post a follow-up tweet to clarify that it actually has nothing to do with Apple (on an unrelated note, yes, December 19TH is today, and the announcement is happening at 3PM EST, which is approximately 2 hours after from when this article was released; this article was released at 1PM EST).

Pre-announcements have become so popular that altcoins have adopted it as a strategy to boost hype, market exposure, and ultimately, price. EMC2 is no pioneer in this endeavor; NEO and Ripple buyers have experienced the similar burn of a pre-announcement hype followed by lackluster reveal.

Back in December 17TH, 2017, NEO Council published an image that went viral immediately. The image, written in Chinese, prophesied prosperity for NEO holders in three-days’ time frame. With little other information to go on, craze ensued. Conspiracy theories crept out from all corners of the Internet, many of which had to do with the Chinese government’s cooperation with NEO as the gatekeeper for legalizing ICOs in China. Within a 24-hour period from the announcement, the price pumped by 62%.

By the end of the third day, with no bullish announcements, the price had already dropped by 30%, leaving many buyers who didn’t ride the first 24-hour wave at a loss.

Similarly, Ripple unveiled an announcement about upcoming announcements in August of 2017. In a similar fashion, the market frenzied with speculation of bullish activity, which then drove up the prices. Prices trickled from that point, and revitalized for an extended period of time in October, as users began to hypothesize that the bullish announcements would be appropriately revealed at Ripple’s upcoming conference, SWELL. That didn’t happen, and Ripple prices dropped again.

Whose responsibility is it?

On one hand, one can argue that the responsibility of informed, careful investing rests ultimately on the buyer’s shoulders. I agree with this for the first attempt at pre-announcements. Maybe altcoins didn’t know better, maybe they did.

But with this tempting trend becoming more prevalent in the market, altcoins should take more responsibility when deciding on releasing pre-announcements. Gleaming over just the past couple of months, there are countless case-studies of pre-announcement successes and failures to learn from. With the risks involved in pre-announcement, altcoins need to decide at what point it’s worth risking their reputation and trust for a quick pump and some market exposure.

Will it be different for EMC2?

We’ll find out in a couple of hours. While the EMC2 holder in me hopes that this time will be different, the logical adviser in me is whispering that history tends to repeat itself. I’m going to set some tight stop losses.

If you like cryptocurrency news and analysis, or just want to see more of this, follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@wandererli

Edit: Looks like those tight stop losses protected me again. History repeats itself.