The Bitcoin Series - Part 4: Volatility, Whales, and Manipulation — Can We Really Trust Bitcoin? - The Crypto 101 Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Crypto one on one show, where we
dive into the world of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin, blockchain, and all
the technology with it. Whether you're experienced or a beginner
to crypto, our goal is to break down complex concepts
and make it easy for you to understand the basics,
from Bitcoin to all coins. We'll cover it all in
a way that's easy to digest and provide listeners with

(00:30):
the knowledge and understanding they need to make informed decisions
and better critical thought. Sit back, relax, and let's simplify
your understanding of cryptocurrencies on the Crypto one on one Show,

(00:52):
Part four Volatility, whales and manipulation. Can we really trust Bitcoin?
The fear of pump and dumps, social media influence and
shadow manipulation. I need to start off by saying this
is not financial advice, so if you are looking for that,
this show isn't for you. The content of this podcast
episode is for informational purposes only. The opinions expressed here

(01:15):
are not meant to be taken as financial investment or
any other advice. Welcome back to the Bitcoin Series, Part four.
In the last episode, we talked about influence, how bitcoin changes,
who holds the power, and how the power can still
shape culture, politics, and perception. But today we zoom in
on the money itself, because for all the talk about

(01:36):
freedom and decentralization, most people have a similar question. Can
I actually use this stuff? Can I rely on bitcoin
when prices swing wildly from week to week? Can I
trust it to not be manipulated like Wall Street? And
is it really immune from the same tricks that broke
our current financial system volatility, market manipulation, the role of Wales.

(01:58):
This is where the rubber meets the road, where ideology
meets economics, because if bitcoin can't hold its value or worse,
if it's still vulnerable to the same games, then what
are we really building. This episode is about confronting those
hard truths, not with hype, not with fear, but with
the grounded look at what bitcoin is, what it isn't,

(02:18):
and what it still needs to become. So let's get
into it. Question one, how does bitcoin volatility affect real
world purchasing power? When people first hear about bitcoin, one
of the biggest concerns, especially from people outside the crypto world,
is the volatility. One day it's sixty thousand dollars, the

(02:38):
next it's forty thousand dollars, then back to fifty thousand
dollars again, it's a financial rollercoaster that nobody asks to ride.
Let's be real, The average person isn't asking how does
blockchain change incentives? They're asking can I use this thing
to pay rent without worrying every time the price drops
ten percent overnight? And that brings up a very real question.

(03:00):
How can something be money or a store of value
if its price swings this wildly? If I earn zero
point zero one bitcoin today and I can buy groceries
with it, what happens if the same bitcoin loses thirty
percent by the end of the week or flip side.
What if it gain's thirty percent and I just spent it.
This kind of volatility makes it really hard to plan,

(03:22):
hard to budget, hard to save, and it's hard to
convince the average person to trust it as a day
to day money. Now, let's zoom out. Why is bitcoin
so volatile? Well, part of it's just market maturity. Bitcoin
is still young compared to national currencies or gold. There's
less liquidity, a smaller pool of buyers and sellers, so

(03:42):
every big guy or sell move swings the price much harder.
Than in traditional markets. It's also unbacked. No central bank
is there to stabilize it, no interest rates to tweak,
no money printer, go bur button to smooth things over.
That's by design and it's part of the appeal, But
it also means Bitcoin's value is one hundred percent determined

(04:03):
by open market forces, supply demands, speculation, fear, hype, and narratives.
So where does that leave purchasing power? Real quick? Purchasing
power refers to the amount of products and services available
for purchase with a certain currency unit. An example of
this is if you purchase a can of pepsi for
a dollar, but the following year the same can of
pepsi costs two dollars, the purchasing power of a single

(04:25):
US dollar changed. So if you are in a stable
economy like the US, it's understandable why this feels like
a deal breaker. But if you're in Argentina, Lebanon, Venezuela,
where FIAT loses twenty percent or more of its value monthly,
Bitcoin's volatility can actually feel less risky because despite the
ups and downs over a long time horizon, Bitcoin has

(04:48):
trended up, FIAT has trended down, so it really depends
on your frame of reference. In hyperinflation, which is where
the price of all goods and services rise uncontrollably over
a defined time period, volatility is a gambole some are
willing to take because it's still better than guaranteed loss.
But for bitcoin to truly function as money, not just

(05:09):
an investment, the volatility has to settle down. That will
take time, Broader adoption, deeper liquidity, more use is spending
money rather than just speculative money. But until then, most
people will likely use bitcoin, like digital gold, not to
buy coffee, but to store a value long term, a
kind of financial bunker rather than a daily wallet. So

(05:31):
can bitcoin serve as stable purchasing power to day for
most people? Not yet, But can it offer stronger purchasing
power over the long haul, especially compared to weakening fiat
The answer might be yes. Question two, can bitcoin ever
be safe from price manipulation or is it built into
the system. When people talk about bitcoin being decentralized, the

(05:52):
assumption is, well, at least it's not rigged like Wall Street.
But here is the uncomfortable truth. Manipulation still happens, and
in bitcoin it's not behind closed doors. It's happening right
in front of us. Let's define it first. Price manipulation
is any effort to move the market in an artificial way,
to cause panic or greed, or a massive shift so

(06:14):
the manipulator can profit. Now, think about how that plays
out in bitcoin. A whales sells off thousands of bitcoin,
suddenly tanks the price. Coordinated buys to spark a rally
pumps the price. A high profile influencer tweets bitcoin to
one million, sparks fomo, and then leverage gets liquidated and

(06:34):
billions disappear in hours. We've seen this over and over,
and most recently with a high ranking politician launching his
own coin. This isn't a theory, it's happening live with bitcoin.
It drops fifteen percent in one day because of a
single news event or wallet movement. People lose fortunes because
someone big decided to sell, and that brings us to whales.

(06:56):
Bitcoin is decentralized by design, no central bank, no CEO,
no gatekeeper, but ownership is still very concentrated. Roughly two
percent of wallets hold over ninety percent of the bitcoin
in circulation, and when those wallets move, the entire market watches,
panics and reacts. Even if it's not intentional manipulation, the

(07:17):
effect is the same. A few players can shake the
entire system to be fair. In Bitcoin, all of this
is visible. You can literally watch the big wallets. There
are no secret bailouts, no shadow banks quietly reshaping interest rates.
That's an upgrade from traditional finance. But let's be clear,
transparency isn't the same as safety. You might see the manipulation,

(07:39):
but you can't always stop it. So what's the real answer?
Bitcoin may never be one hundred percent immune to manipulation,
but it can become harder to manipulate over time as
adoption grows, as liquidity deepens, as usage shifts from speculation
to spending, it as tooling evolves to detect and resist
coordinated moves. Right now, Bitcoin is still in the early innings.

(08:03):
It's fragile, reactive, emotional. But that doesn't mean it's broken.
It just means it's young. So no, Bitcoin isn't perfectly
safe from manipulation, but at least this time the game
is being played in the open, and that that's a start.
Question three, is Bitcoin really any different from Wall Street?
Are we just building a new version of the same system.

(08:24):
This is the part where we hold up the mirror,
because if bitcoin is supposed to be the future, we
have to ask whether it's actually different from what it's replacing,
or just wearing different clothes. Wall Street was built on
a promise of opportunity, but over time it became a
machine for wealth consolidation, inside power and systematic exclusion. So
is bitcoin breaking that cycle or just copying the structure

(08:47):
but swapping suits for hoodies. But start with what's different.
Bitcoin is open source, no secret contracts, no closed doors meetings.
It's borderless. Anyone with an Internet connection can participate. It's transparent,
transactions are on a public ledger, and its supply capped.
No money printer, no bailouts, no QE. Those are radical shifts,

(09:09):
and they matter because they change the foundation. And here's
the tension. Even with all of that, we're still seeing
some familiar patterns emerging. Whales move markets with a single transaction,
Influencers can hype coins for their own gain, Speculation can
drive prices more than utility platforms, gatekeeper access just like banks.

(09:30):
People even treat crypto like a stock portfolio instead of
a tool for freedom. It's not the protocol that's the problem.
It's the culture and ethics we're building on top of it.
Because if we bring the same greed, the same obsession
with status, the same race to be early and extract value,
we're not escaping Wall Street, We're just rebuilding it on
the blockchain. Let's zoom out on the deeper point. The

(09:53):
question isn't just is Bitcoin different, it's are we different?
Because a decentralized system with centralized behavior is still vulnerable
and code can't fix human ego. Bitcoin gives us the
rails for something better, but it's on us to decide
whether we're using it to liberate or just to replicate
the power structures we claim to hate. If we want

(10:13):
bitcoin to be more than just another Wall Street playground,
we have to actively build systems, cultures, and incentives that
reward fairness, not just fortune. We don't need to be perfect,
but we do need to be intentional. Because decentralization isn't
an escape patch. It's a blank canvas and what we
paint on it is up to us. So where does
that leave us? Bitcoin was supposed to be the antidote

(10:36):
to a broken systems, no printing, no bailouts, no banks
rigging the rules behind closed doors, and in many ways
it is. But if we're honest, the game hasn't just disappeared,
it's just evolved. Bitcoin gives us something rare in this world.
A financial system. You can see, a code base, you
can verify, a network that doesn't care who you are,
only that you showed up. That doesn't fix everything, but

(10:58):
it changes what's possible. So if Bitcoin is volatile, manipulated,
or messy right now, maybe that's not failure. Maybe that's
just what early systems look like before people decide what
kind of values they're going to bring to them. If
you've made it this far, you're not just here for
the price charts, You're here for the big questions. Next
up in part five, what is wealth really? We're unpacking.

(11:21):
If bitcoin is just creating a new kind of generational wealth,
are we just building class divide? How can new people
enter the system without being priced out? Until then, stay curious,
stay grounded. I want to be extremely upfront that I
try my best to leave all of my opinions out
of this. I know this is very condensed and simplified,
but I want you to gain your own understanding and
beliefs and not be persuaded by me. I hope this

(11:44):
helped you gain a better grasp of it. Please remember
to share, follow, and subscribe to our mailing list and
to your favorite podcast app for future episodes so you
can gain more with your crypto knowledge. If this sparks
something in you or made you question what's possible, I'd
love to hear about it. And if you found this valuable,
share it tag someone who needs to hear it or
just sit with it. Thanks for listening, Thanks for listening

(12:15):
to this episode of The Crypto One on one Show.
If you would like to join our email list, email
us at the Crypto One on One Show at gmail
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The Bitcoin Series - Part 4: Volatility, Whales, and Manipulation — Can We Really Trust Bitcoin?

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