With the bitcoin price failing to yet again find substantive momentum, the mainstream media remains confident in their bearishness. To be blunt, their hubris is understandable. The cryptocurrencies are intractably ugly, especially from their magic run in late November through mid-December. However, the critics are forgetting one major detail.
For starters, the bitcoin price as a whole has moved exponentially higher over the past few years. In 2015, the average bitcoin price was over $272. The following year, the king of cryptocurrencies averaged $568.49. Of course, everyone will remember 2017’s fairy tale run; however, it may surprise some to learn that the average annual haul was only $4,006.
So far this year, the average bitcoin price is a sky-high $10,341.79. Granted, only the first quarter is in, and we’re barely into the second, but calls for the collapse of cryptocurrencies and blockchain reward tokens are well overstated.
But arguably the most important metric to consider at this juncture is the dollar value of the bitcoin volume. In 2016, the total dollar sum of bitcoin volume measured $31.45 billion – an impressive haul during that timeframe. Last year’s banner moment for the blockchain, total volume was valued at nearly $870 billion.
In the 96th day of 2018? Try a whopping $868.4 billion! Barring an unforeseen and completely unprecedented incident, this will be the first year that bitcoin volume will exceed $1 trillion!
More importantly, this exactly counters the central criticism of cryptocurrencies in general, that they’re completely speculative entities that lack fundamental value. As we now know, that’s incorrect – the primary fundamental value is that the blockchain opens up an entirely new, decentralized investment market. The second factor is that cryptocurrencies have become their own viable economy.
In a healthy market, you need the presence of bulls and bears. If everybody went long, there would be no one to take the other side of the trade, which would lead to a catastrophic loss eventually. We’re not actually seeing that with the bitcoin price. Sure, the markets have fallen substantially from their highs, but even with the devastation, we still see robust trading activity.
Of course, the mainstream establishment has a vested interest in seeing the bitcoin price and broader enthusiasm in the blockchain collapse – their resilient presence represents an alternative and a challenge to traditional investment assets, assets that they control and from which they profit.
Still, keep the bitcoin volume metric in mind – it only confirms that this journey is only beginning!