The extreme escalation in transaction times is there to ensure the whales can cash out but that smaller investors cannot. Whales can make large transactions, the fees do not mean as much to them. At the same time the small investors cannot cash out because their investment is quite small compared to the fees. The result is the following:
- Whales are cashing out, converting to fiat
- Newbies are buying from the whales in the hope of continues increases
- Existing smaller investors do not want to sell now (despite possible large profits) because of the high fees is you only have a small investment (Today another bitcoiner on this forum has to pay a 20$ fee for a 50$ transaction).
When the whales have completed the sell-off, smaller bitcoin investors can finally begin to sell and that will be the trigger for a complete collapse in the price.
After some level of excitement before the introduction of the Bitcoin Futures which became part of the reasons why Bitcoin wildly surged in the past weeks, right now there is that gloomy feeling within the Bitcoin community and now spreading into many small Bitcoin holders and enthusiasts all over the world. This gloomy feeling has something to do with the preposterous transaction fee affecting everybody. Unlike with the same problem encountered months ago, this time the transactions rate have become too hard to swallow. Yes, this is becoming like a bog joke most especially since we are supposed to be dealing with something that should be fast and relatively cheap -- yet what we are seeing the opposite now. How long will this whole problem go on before many Bitcoin enthusiasts can go sour and change camp? I think there is nobody home for Bitcoin right now. Bitcoin has become like a headless chicken running around without that clear direction. This must be stopped as soon as possible.