Ever since the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin was launched to the public in 2009, it has been always treated as a bubble by traditional financial experts, which don’t want to change.
We all know that when Bitcoin started operations, they sent many Bitcoins to check whether it was working and many did receive Bitcoin for free, but when it was clear that it worked, people started joining it.
In between, lots of Bitcoin changed hands and transferred to many wallets as mining was the only way to earn it. People started running the Bitcoin software and became validators that were earning Bitcoin for every transaction they were verifying.
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Some Bitcoin history
Bitcoin was launched as a peer-to-peer payment system that didn’t require any third-party intervention to verify and complete the transaction, as it was only the sender and receiver that were responsible to complete the transactions.
In 2010, when Bitcoin was very new, a developer purchased two pizzas for paying 10,000 Bitcoin, which is now valued millions of dollars today.
But, no one ever imagined that Bitcoin would end up at such a high rate. The only reason is its limited supply of 21 million tokens.
New coins on the block
However there were several drawbacks for Bitcoin and so in 2013, Litecoin was built from the code of Bitcoin. Apart from that, various coins started coming into operations trying to solve various issues that Bitcoin could not.
Ethereum was the first blockchain that allowed smart contracts to be built on it and it became very popular. When it was launched, the price of one Ether was just a few cents, it is now hovering around $3000.
Various other crypto projects like Ripple (XRP), Dash, Stellar Lumens, Cardano, others were launched in the next few years and in the very next few years, a few hundred were trading. Today, there are over 17,000 crypto projects.
But, many banks & financial experts always raise a red flag that cryptocurrency is very volatile in nature and it rises by 10 to 1000x and in the same way, also crashes down.
Crypto vs Stock market
But, this has been the case for many companies’ shares that are listed on the stock exchanges, although exchanges have mechanisms to check this rise and fall, which is a roadblock for companies’ growth.
As stocks are subject to risk, so do the cryptocurrency tokens, because they also behave on demand and supply patterns.
There are some crypto projects that scam people, so do companies that scam people with their stock, there is not much difference, as scammers are all over the place. So it is rightly said that you should do your research before entering into cryptocurrency.
Many times, Bitcoin has lost 80% of its value in a few hours, thereby losing billions, but many cryptocurrencies are still working and giving good returns to the holders that kept it with them, even during the time of fall.
In 2012, one Bitcoin price was just $1, now it is around $40,000. In 2021, Bitcoin nearly touched $70,000.
In 2018, the overall cryptocurrency market was just $115 billion, with Bitcoin holding over 50% of the market share, in just 4-5 years the market is now $1.72 trillion.
In 2021, the cryptocurrency market had nearly touched $3 trillion and there was a huge rally. Whenever there was a fall in the market, financial experts always called it a bubble, some went to an extent and called it a scam.
But, every time, cryptocurrency has only surprised these anti-crypto community experts. Many economists have rejected the concept of digital money, but on the other hand, many institutional investors have invested billions in cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the first choice of investment, followed by Ethereum.
Some institutional investors have also started cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), so investors don’t need to own cryptocurrency to invest in this sector.
This has recorded a massive increase in such ETFs globally. Initially, Bitcoin was only traded on Mt Gox, however, due to hacking in their exchange, it closed down operations in 2014, where close to 818,000 Bitcoin was traded.
But, after this, various exchanges started operations and are now catering to millions of crypto investors globally. As per an estimate, over 400 million people have invested in cryptocurrencies and it is going to increase further.
New projects and crypto’s global acceptance
As the world has understood the importance of cryptocurrencies, many projects like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse are now gaining attention and this, in turn, is helping more people to enter the space.
Experts believe that crypto is still in an early stage and in the next decade is very important for its development.
Taking a cue from this, even governments are looking to adopt cryptocurrency, but not everyone is interested in making it an official payment tender, as they believe that it can have an impact on their economy.
Some nations want to use it for specific use cases, like remittances, governance, voting, logistics, and other various use cases.
Countries are now releasing blockchain policies and want to have a clear stand on it as there are ambiguities whether crypto is legal or illegal.
Banks and financial institutions are using cryptocurrency for their own problem solving and very soon, we will see it adopted in the mainstream.
All this only says that cryptocurrency is not a bubble and it is the reality of 21 century that provides financial freedom to people. Technology has the power that can bring many people out of extreme poverty.
It is a Klever idea to adopt cryptocurrency in our life!
