When you look at bitcoin’s history, it’s mind-boggling. What began as a small project has grown to be worth more than a trillion dollars.
When I first heard about bitcoin in 2013, it was only available on the dark web. It was only used by true enthusiasts.
It used to be worth pennies back then. It began 2013 with only 13.40. I know that looking at the current bitcoin price, it’s difficult to believe that it used to be around $10, but that was the reality back then. Those were the days when you could mine bitcoin from the comfort of your own home rather than in massive computer factories.
In fact, most bitcoins were mined in this manner back in the day. That is no longer possible because the network has grown so large that a massive computer warehouse is required. However, 2013 was a watershed moment for bitcoin. It experienced its first mini-bubble, with the price skyrocketing to more than $220.
However, it was not widely publicized as it is now. That could be found in bitcoin forums, where crypto enthusiasts exchanged ideas and opinions about the cryptocurrency’s future. To be honest, most enthusiasts couldn’t imagine bitcoin reaching a trillion-dollar valuation at the time. But now we’re here.
Bitcoin can be found everywhere. Because the price of bitcoin has risen faster than ever in the last 12 months, 2021 can be officially designated as the year of bitcoin. We can criticize the pandemic all we want, but this crypto boom would not have occurred if it hadn’t been for the pandemic.
Just to remind you, prior to the pandemic, the price was hovering around $7,000. It’s difficult to believe, but that was the case. In fact, it reached its rock boom of 3400 dollars in December 2018.
I believe we can all envy the people who bought it back then. Consider the profits they’ve made for a moment. But you can’t go back in time and bemoan the fact that you didn’t invest in bitcoin back then. What we’d like to know is why bitcoin hasn’t crashed yet. For many people, bitcoin or everything that has happened with cryptocurrency recently is a bubble.
People believe this for a variety of reasons. We discussed some of them in previous articles, but we also discussed why crypto may not be a bubble and why it has a future.
Especially when it comes to news like this. El Salvador’s president intends to build a bitcoin city and will fund it with cryptocurrency. That’s probably one of the most outlandish ideas I’ve heard this year. What began as a small project is now evolving into a city in which everything, from roads to restaurants to schools, will be funded with cryptocurrency.
It sounds like the kind of Utopia that crypto enthusiasts fantasize about. But, in order to do so, the government must raise funds, which it intends to do by selling bitcoin bonds. It appears to be a great plan to help the country finally get out of the economic crisis that it has been experiencing for several years. The construction could begin as early as 2022, according to official statements. Regardless of how badly the country is doing economically, it still makes headlines and encourages people to believe in the future of bitcoin. When a country sees its future in the construction of a bitcoin city, you know bitcoin isn’t going away anytime soon.
But that isn’t the only factor keeping the bitcoin price around $50,000. Tim Cook, the CEO of the most valuable company, stated that he owns crypto; he did not specifically mention bitcoin, but if you are investing in crypto, bitcoin should be your first choice. He didn’t say anything about Apple accepting cryptocurrency, but if the CEO is so interested in it, then the company is seriously considering it, so it’s only a matter of time before Apple joins the fray.
Look at Amazon, for example. The company has announced the hiring of a new ‘Head of Digital Currency and Blockchain’ to join its Payment Acceptance and Customer Experience team. Amazon appears to have been planning its move into cryptocurrency. The moment the world’s largest corporations enter the game, or rather invest in cryptocurrency, the game is over! There is no turning back now! What surprised me the most was what JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said. Jamie Dimon is literally the face of Wall Street, and if he admits that bitcoin price will rise even though he believes bitcoin price is worthless, it is clear that the status quo is accepting crypto.
It is also critical to comprehend the adoption of virtual and artificial reality. Wait a minute, how does this have anything to do with cryptocurrency?
We’ve been constructing this virtual world since the internet’s inception. It began with sending emails, and has progressed to the point where we can shop online, attend meetings via Zoom, and even compete internationally in e-sports.
The next stage in this virtual world will be Metaverse, which will be a virtual world where anything is possible. We are already living in a virtual reality world in some ways. I know it sounds far-fetched to some of you, but we’ve been moving in this direction for over 20 years, and the pandemic has accelerated the process to the point where one of the world’s largest internet companies has renamed itself Meta. You already know what to expect if you’ve seen Zuck’s presentation. We’re not all that far away from that reality. Indeed, most experts believe that Apple’s next big thing will be a VR product. I’m not sure what it will look like, but it will definitely be related to VR.
But in this virtual world, we need a system to own things, which is where NFTs come in, and they are based on Ethereum, for example, and crypto is the de facto currency of the virtual world. Andrey Jikh has created an incredible video about the Metaverse. He’s done an excellent job of explaining how it could potentially look, and I’ll include a link to his video in the description.
But not everything is rainbows and sunshine. To begin with, crypto has been declining over the last week or so, or at least when I am wiring this script. It has already dropped by about 15%. I’m not sure how much further it will fall by the time I finish writing this piece, but I’m hoping it will recover. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many people have been anticipating a crypto crash. Although I believe in crypto, there are some compelling reasons why things could crash to some extent. We know that one of the reasons crypto has risen so dramatically is because of cheap money. If you’ve seen our video on how the economy works, you’ll know that there are periods of recession and boom, and for the past year or so, we’ve been in that boom period, which appears to last at least another year.
It’s difficult to make such predictions because the world is unpredictable, but during such times, there is simply too much money in the economy, and crashes almost never occur, especially with bitcoin, which has a massive dedicated network. When this period is over, and it will not be over in the blink of an eye. Just to let you know, the previous economic expansion lasted more than ten years. When the economy crashed in 2008, the recovery lasted until 2020.
Of course, if you look at the data, the slowdown began in 2016, but it seems to have stabilized around that time. So expecting a crash in the near future is unrealistic. That is true not only for bitcoin, but for the entire economy.
As the Fed raises interest rates, the supply of cash in the economy shrinks, which means that people have less money to spend on average, affecting demand for crypto and bitcoin. It’s impossible to predict how much of an impact it will have on cryptocurrency, but it will undoubtedly affect the price. All you have to do is keep an eye on interest rates because they are important economic indicators —
That is exactly what all investors do. Even if it does, it will not completely depress prices because if major corporations adopt crypto, it will simply become a fundamental part of our economy.