Being digital, Bitcoin has some nice properties that precious metals don't, but we stopped using precious metals as the foundation of the economy decades ago. The idea remains popular with a certain set of ideologues who want to make their cash holdings the basis of the financial system, but that's much too inflexible to run a modern economy.
Economists overwhelmingly believe that they need currency control to manage irrational market speculation. Technologists frequently cite a small number of economists who disagree, and while truth is not a democracy, but it's wise to be suspicious when one's choice of experts just happens to affirm the things that benefit you personally.
tl;dr: There could be a place for blockchain, but BTC is based on a bunch of self-imagined revolutionaries who don't know how to manage an economy.
Stocks are feeling more and more like this also.
I don’t know for certain but the amount of retail investing on vibes around AI companies and metals feels just like the crypto peaks. Just the other day Marvell jumped on the words of Jensen Huang and metal ETFs randomly lost tons of investment earlier this year.
Without a lot of the guardrails of the US regulatory apparatus that has been gutted by the current administration, the market is riff with manipulation. Truly another gilded age.
Related: https://www.bitcoinisdead.org/
Aside from the technical aspects of blockchain, there is a second reason to talk about the direction of the price. There's reason to think that it's falling because of other technology offerings (mostly AI, and increasingly space). So it's a meaningful indicator of the sense of investors in technologies.
"An AI can't smell a painting, but it can smell an NFT"
It's still a store of value.. I guess?
I have sweatshirts that are older than Bitcoin, brother.
It fits my needs perfectly except for one critical issue --- it won't clean up food dropped on the floor.
Bitcoin is imaginary money. It works perfectly except for one critical issue --- it's not very good for purchasing stuff.
Bitcoin has about the same value as my imaginary dog.
Your imaginary dog can’t teleport value across the globe instantly, but Bitcoin can.
"Someone can instantly and permanently steal your beloved dog and you'll never see it again" is a downside.
It's true that your imaginary dog, like Bitcoin, has no good legal use; but your imaginary dog is harmless. Bitcoin is not.
Truly amazing that the tech elite have replicated everything wrong with the existing financial system while not managing to get any of the actual good, useful parts.
The recent AI development and progress has fried everyone's brain that every new tech will take a financial quarter to develop.
Maybe I should sell my gold also because nuclear fusion will make it plentiful and obsolete as store of value?
Not much lower than what?
> How low will it go in this cycle
In the ballpark of 50K USD.
Than the current price of fifty-ish k.
Although even if you buy and sell perfectly. This cycle gain shouldn't be larger than about 100% between now and +2.5 years from now. And that's in dollars, that are gonna probably lose another another 15% of their value in that time.
Bitcoin became a pretty boring asset.