It's a short term drop. We all know how volatile the crypto market is and it's a bumpy ride. The reason for the drop is probably due to someone selling a lot and moving into a different coin. What I suspect is that they moved to BTC since it's been an upward trend lately. I just mine GLD 24/7 and try not to look at the short term market trends since I'm in it for the long term.
As prices drop, more will buy and it will go up. But that's just how market works... for now. It's still at an early stage in terms of trading since we don't have GLD/USD (under pre-beta as we speak) and it's rather tedious to purchase BTC or LTC and then have to purchase GLD.
As far as the increasing difficulty of mining and less GLD per block as years go, I think mining will still be viable as long as the prices go up with it. I mean, look at BTC/LTC and the impact of the increasing difficulty, yet it's still profitable due to increase in value. Let's say I can mine 100 GLD per day at $1 each this month... $100 profit per day (minus electricity/fees). Due to increasing difficulty and less block rewards, I can only mine 10 GLD per day a year from now. However, the price of GLD increased to $10 a coin. Still $100 profit per day.
Those who mine and are mining right now are usually the long term investors who are hoping to see a rise in prices of their coins exponentially down the road. I can't wait for those days to come when 1GLD will be worth $1+. However, it's not a waiting game... we need to take action and get more spot light on GLD if we want that future.
This is the way I see it on GLD's success in the future:
1. GLD needs to become independent of other coins, especially BTC/LTC, but more importantly... independent and from all of these growing altcoins.
2. GLD needs to find gold/precious metals as its niche market. Imagine GLD being advertised by precious metal investors and companies. Billboards saying "Buy GLD now!" or "I buy your GLD!"
3. Going off of #2, I personally believe that GLD can be used as an alternative to physical gold. If you were to invest in physical gold right now, you would have purchase it and get it transported to your house. You are going to pay fees to transport it and possibly more money spent to securely transport your investment if you're buying bulk. Then once you receive your gold, you need the space and security to store it. Also, you may have been scammed by "fake" gold...
Imagine GLD becoming side by side to physical gold. Instead of stocks, investors can purchase GLD which would work the same as buying physical gold, except it's faster, easier, cheaper, and safer to buy/sell/store GOLD! GLD could be mined by anyone or even small mining businesses and continue to mine until it's depleted, which is still YEARS ahead. In order for this to happen though, we would need some backing of big precious metal investment companies.
4. Need more media coverage. We need GLD to show up on TV, internet, etc. This can be accomplished by #3 when and if precious metal investors and companies announce that GLD is THE and ONLY alternative currency to gold.
5. More exchanges = more market and can lead to prices rising. Also, GLD <-> Fiat exchange would really help for new investors to easily get their hands on GLD.
Unfortunately, I can only throw out my ideas since I don't have finance or business background and stuck with my job for the next few years. If I was fresh out of business school, I would be investing my time and money right now in Wall street to make this happen. Such is life.
I, however, am contributing as a 24/7 miner to gold and will try to spread the word on GLD to as many people as possible. I've been successful somewhat since I've had many people ask me on starting their mining rig or purchasing GLD.
