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Demand for Bitcoin could grow by up to 10X within 12 months: Michael Saylor

The MicroStrategy co-founder emphasized that demand for Bitcoin will significantly ramp up following the halving next year.

With the Bitcoin halving just months away, MicroStrategy co-founder and Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor thinks that demand for BTC could grow by as much as 10X by the end of 2024.

During a speech at the 2023 Australia Crypto Convention on Nov. 10, Saylor was asked to give his outlook for Bitcoin and its ecosystem over the next four to five years.

In response, Saylor initially gave a rundown on the period between 2020 and 2024, noting that Bitcoin went from being seen as a “offshore unregulated asset” to an “institutionalized mainstream app.”

Honing in on the near term, Saylor said that BTC will become a “adolescent mainstream asset by the end of 2024,” as he highlighted key dynamics surrounding supply and demand that will soon come into play:

“I think that this next 12 months is going to be a big. Because demand [on a monthly basis] should double or triple or maybe go up by a factor of 10, anywhere from two to 10. [...] and the supply available for sale will be cut in half in April.”

“So instead of a billion dollars of Bitcoin available for miners each month, it will be half a billion. It's pretty unprecedented that you would go from a supply and demand balance of maybe $15 billion of organic demand and $12 billion of organic supply. What happens when one doubles, and the other one cuts in half ? the price is going to adjust up,” he added.

Speakers at the Melbourne-based event. Source: Australian Crypto Convention

Saylor went on to describe the next 12 months for Bitcoin as its “coming out party” as the asset graduates from “college” and heads out into the real world.

Looking at 2024 to 2028, Saylor predicted that Bitcoin will continue to be in a high-growth stage as adoption spreads across the big tech industry and mega banks worldwide, with both sectors integrating Bitcoin into their products and services. 

Saylor also said he expects to see a lot of competition among companies like Apple and Meta (Facebook) to get their hands on BTC to eventually sell for major profits.

“You're going to have ferocious competition and will among Wall Streeters to get the most asset share and you're going to have crypto exchanges competing and you're going to have other tech companies getting involved. [...] That’ll be one check.”

“The other check will be when the big mega banks or Bitcoin custodians with JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and, you know [...] when they're making loans and giving mortgages and customising it and buying and selling it. I think that'll be the second check,” he added.

Looking even further into the future, at around 25 years, Saylor outlined some lofty predictions for the future of Bitcoin, as he emphasized that BTC will blow any other high-quality asset out of the water.

“When it hits that terminal growth rate, maybe 20 years out, maybe 25 years, or it'll be growing twice as fast or compounding twice as fast as the S&P 500 Index, or any other diversified high quality portfolio of assets you could buy,” he said, adding:

“So if you think about it like that, you just say, well [...] now we're going to double we're going to double again, we're going to double again, and we're going to double again, that coin is going to continue to progress to a million dollars a coin, $2 million a coin, $5 million a coin, $10 million a coin.”

MicroStrategy currently holds around 158,400 BTC, and the firm was up around $900 million on its investment as of Nov. 2.

Magazine: Recursive inscriptions — Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

El Salvador pro-Bitcoin president Nayib Bukele launches re-election bid

Despite Bukele’s popularity, some critics argue he isn’t eligible to be re-elected under El Salvador’s constitution.

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has filed paperwork to be re-elected in the country’s upcoming 2024 presidential election in February.

Bukele, a Bitcoin advocate, received strong support from the public on Oct. 26 after he was officially nominated by his party to run for re-election.

“Five more [years], five more and not one step back,” Bukele said in a speech in front of thousands of El Salvadorans. “We need five years to continue improving our country,” he added.

Bukele rose to power in 2019 when his political party, Neuva (New) Ideas, broke three decades of two-party dominance between the Nationalist Republican Alliance and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMNLB).

However, despite his popularity among the local population, critics such as El Salvadoran lawyer Alfonso Fajardo maintain that the country’s constitution prohibits Bukele isn’t eligible to seek a second consecutive term.

“Today is a good day to remember that immediate presidential re-election is prohibited up to 7 times by the Constitution,” he said on Oct. 26.

However, in September 2021, El Salvador’s Supreme Court ruled that presidents can run for consecutive elections.

New Ideas is backed by 70% of the country’s voting population, according to Reuters, which cited a study by an El Salvadoran university. Its closest competitor only received 4% of the total votes.

One of New Ideas’ competitors, FMNLB, filed a lawsuit in June 2021 claiming Bukele’s Bitcoin adoption program is unconstitutional. However, that complaint made little ground as Bukele and El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender three months later September 2021.

The Bukele government has also implemented other tech-friendly policies aimed at strengthening the country’s economy, such as eliminating all taxes on technological innovations.

Gabor Gurbacs, a VanEck strategy advisor, recently said that El Salvador has the potential to become the “Singapore of the Americas.”

Related: El Salvador launches first Bitcoin mining pool as Volcano Energy partners with Luxor

Much of Bukele’s popularity comes from his heavy-handed crackdown against MS-13, a multi-national gang which contributed towards El Salvador recording the highest homicide rates in the world six years ago.

As a result of the crackdown, El Salvador's homicide rate has fallen a staggering 92.6% from its peak of 106 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 7.8 in 2022. It now boasts one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America.

However, the United Nations and other critics argue El Salvador breached human rights laws by imprisoning 65,000 without affording them legal rights to defend themselves.

El Salvador’s presidential election will take place on Feb. 4, 2024.

Magazine: What it’s actually like to use Bitcoin in El Salvador

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

Developer Uncle Rockstar shares the key to Bitcoin adoption: BTC Prague 2023

Rockstar believes that as more quality Bitcoiners join, support, communicate and collaborate, Bitcoin will continue to rise.

BTC Prague 2023 highlighted that there remain many places in the world where Bitcoin (BTC) adoption is still in its early stages, but the community is optimistic it can onboard more BTC supporters despite the challenges that come its way.

In an interview with Cointelegraph reporter Joseph Hall, pseudonymous Bitcoin developer Uncle Rockstar, the head of Bitcoin at payment platform Strike, shared his thoughts on Bitcoin adoption and his most pressing concerns within the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2023.

According to the developer, the BTC Prague event allowed him to talk about his story. He said that while he had less time, he was able to allow people to catch “tiny bits” that he believes would let people “do the same for themselves.” He explained that:

“At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. Like, how can we have more people that individually are uplifted by Bitcoin, and then, can contribute to Bitcoin? And then, we increase Bitcoin adoption.”

The developer encouraged people to explore Bitcoin and reach out to him or their company Strike to see how they can collaborate. 

Uncle Rockstar speaks with Cointelegraph reporter Joseph Hall at BTC Prague. Source: Cointelegraph

When asked about his most pressing concerns in the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2023, the developer spoke about what he describes as the “Bitcoin Derangement Syndrome” and distractions with “shitcoins and the SEC” that could cause some infighting. 

Related: BTC Prague 2023: ‘Anyone can produce value in the Bitcoin ecosystem’

He further explained that community members with the syndrome have started to make things all about themselves. Rockstar said:

“It's like ‘me, me I have done this. I have done that.’ Even if you look at block size wars, it was like ‘I know what should be done!’ And then you have a number of people who are more simply better suited and know more.”

According to Rockstar, these issues reduce the focus on what should be done within the ecosystem. The developer also said that he’s grateful to those who continue to fight against these bad actors within the space.

He added that everyone has a role to play in the space, and if more people join the community, Bitcoin can stay on its course.

“As long as we keep getting more quality Bitcoiners in Bitcoin, and they create a network, they're all individual nodes. And they support each other and they communicate with each other and they collaborate. Bitcoin will keep rising,” Rockstar explained.

Magazine: Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

‘Bitcoin Jesus’ says Ethereum is the front-runner for global crypto adoption

Roger Ver says that Ethereum, not Bitcoin, will lead the most new users to crypto.

Early Bitcoin (BTC) investor and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocate Roger Ver claimed that Ethereum, not Bitcoin, will be responsible for driving the bulk of new users towards crypto. 

On a May 31 episode of the Show Me The Crypto podcast, Ver — labeled “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early Bitcoin advocacy — said that despite Ethereum’s scaling issues and the other layer-one “clones” that have popped up in its wake, the Ethereum ecosystem is still where the action is:

“Even though Ethereum doesn’t have the biggest market cap compared to Bitcoin, I think Ethereum is the front-runner in terms of driving worldwide adoption.”

Ver praised the rise of Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible (EVM) blockchains and layer-2 scaling solutions such as Polygon (MATIC) that can help share some of the load away from the main chain.

Ver provides an account of the “civil war” that occurred in the early days of Bitcoin between Etheruem’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Bitcoin core developers.

Disagreements over the use of smart contracts and moving away from the idea of blockchains being used purely as currency or stores of value eventually drove Buterin to develop Ethereum, Ver noted:

“All of that would have been built on top of Bitcoin if not for the scaling civil war that happened. These Bitcoin core developers hate Vitalik, and they basically drove him from the project to go and create Ethereum, and more power to him for that.”

Ver also spoke on the recent Ledger debate, calling the controversial Recover service “disappointing.” The service allows users to store their encrypted seed phase with external custodians to safeguard against loss; Ver said that while it’s fine for people to have custodial accounts and choose to recover their keys if they wish, the ethos of crypto is centered on having full control of your assets at all times.

Related: Hybrid rollups: The silver bullet for scalability and security on Ethereum

In January, Ver was sued by a trading unit of the crypto lending firm Genesis for failing to pay some $20.8 million in unsettled crypto options.

Ver claimed in a January Reddit post that he had “sufficient funds” to pay the outstanding sum but argued that because Genesis was no longer solvent, he was not legally required to uphold his end of the deal.

Last year, Ver made headlines for allegations of defaulting on a debt. CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb claimed Ver owed the firm $47 million USD Coin (USDC) and was bound by a written contract. On June 28, Ver denied these claims without directly mentioning the company.

Magazine: Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum — Can we fix it?

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

El Salvador Considers Opening Second Bitcoin Embassy in Texas to Boost Economic Exchange

El Salvador Considers Opening Second Bitcoin Embassy in Texas to Boost Economic ExchangeOn Feb. 14, 2023, Milena Mayorga, the Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, announced that her country is considering opening a second bitcoin embassy in the Lone Star State. Mayorga said that Texas is “our new ally” and the goal is to expand “commercial and economic exchange projects.” Ambassador Milena Mayorga Fosters Growing Relationship Between […]

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

Billionaire Tim Draper Says Bitcoin (BTC) Will Make El Salvador One of the Richest Nations on Earth

Billionaire Tim Draper Says Bitcoin (BTC) Will Make El Salvador One of the Richest Nations on Earth

Venture capitalist Tim Draper says Bitcoin (BTC) will likely transform El Salvador from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest. In a new interview with popular crypto bull Anthony Pompliano, the billionaire predicts that the decision by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to invest in the king crypto and […]

The post Billionaire Tim Draper Says Bitcoin (BTC) Will Make El Salvador One of the Richest Nations on Earth appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

Bitcoin capitulations abound — Data shows realized and unrealized losses at record-highs

Bankruptcies, shrinking profit margins and traders realizing hefty losses are all signs of capitulation from various market participants.

Being three weeks removed from the FTX collapse, Bitcoin (BTC) analysts are combing through data to decipher whether more selling will continue or if a bear market floor has been reached. 

One thing miners, short-term and long-term holders have in common is they are losing in the Bitcoin market right now.

According to on-chain analysis from Glassnode, the scale of both realized and unrealized losses amongst Bitcoin holders is one of the heaviest capitulation events in BTC’s history. Capitulation is hindering all groups from the increasing number of bankruptcies and dwindling miner revenue.

Bitcoin’s realized losses fourth largest on record while unrealized losses increase

November recorded $10.8 billion in 7-day realized losses for Bitcoin. The largest recorded realized loss in Bitcoin’s history is June 2022 when $19.8 billion was recorded. Such losses show that a large volume of Bitcoin has changed hands at discounted prices.

Bitcoin realized 7-day losses. Source: Glassnode

A popular crypto investing saying is “you cannot lose if you do not sell.” Unrealized losses track the entire Bitcoin market versus total market capitalization. The November 2022 56% unrealized loss is the largest in the current bear market. In 2014-2015, unrealized losses hit an all-time high for Bitcoin holders at 86%. The current unrealized losses are the fourth largest in Bitcoin’s history.

According to Glassnode analysts:

“This metric has recently peaked at 56%, which is the highest for this cycle, and comparable to prior bear market floors.”
Bitcoin unrealized losses 7-day moving average. Source: Glassnode

Block times slow down as Bitcoin miners struggle

Bitcoin investors are not the only group capitulating in the current market. Bitcoin miners are struggling to remain profitable with the depressed prices.

Since Bitcoin miners are under pressure to remain financially viable, this affects the BTC mining hash rate. A reduction in Bitcoin’s hash rate slows down BTC transactions. According to HashRate Index, block times reached over 11 minutes.

Despite the current challenges, analysts believe that capitulation is healthy for starting the next bull run. Glassnode notes:

“One consistent event which motivates the transition from a bear back towards a bull market is the dramatic realization of losses, as investors give up and capitulate at scale.”

With so many groups currently at a loss at this stage of the bear market post-FTX collapse, Bitcoin and overall market sentiment will need to improve to spur new money to drive a bull run. Without improved sentiment, the capitulation may not match previous Bitcoin cycles.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

Bitcoin, space travel and TikTok debut in Guinness World Records

The latest edition has included a host of achievements from “Cryptomania,” including the record CryptoPunk NFT sale and El Salvador becoming the first country to adopt BTC as a legal Tender.

Guinness World Records has added Bitcoin (BTC) and a number of blockchain events in the latest edition of its record book under the category of “Cryptomania.”

The recognition of crypto by a mainstream staple such as Guinness World Records indicates that blockchain and digital assets were among the most publicly touched-on subjects over the past couple of years.

The 2023 edition, launched last month, has seen a number of notable crypto achievements included which spanning Bitcoin, crypto adoption, fan tokens and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

Bitcoin was unsurprisingly recognized as the most valuable cryptocurrency, with its market cap of $816.69 billion as of March 24, 2022, while it also got recognition for being the world’s first decentralized crypto after launching in early 2009.

“Bitcoin was developed as a solution to the challenge of regulating a digital currency without any centralized organization, or ‘trusted third party’, to oversee transactions,” The Guinness World Records’ description reads online, adding that other attempts had come before that ultimately relied on a trusted third party.

OG NFT project CryptoPunks also made the cut for the most “expensive NFT collectible” after CryptoPunk #5822 was purchased for $23.7 million, or 8,000 Ether (ETH) on Feb. 12 this year by entrepreneur Deepak Thapliya.

It is worth noting that Beeple’s record $69.3 million record NFT sale didn’t make the cut there, as the firm described an NFT collectible as “limited-edition sets of artwork built around pre-rendered templates.”

Fan tokens also appeared as a category in the book. Manchester City’s token — launched via Socios in June 2021 — was recorded as the “most valuable fan token” with a market cap of $47.1 million as of March 24, 2022.

El Salvador was also included in the book for being the “first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender” in June last year.

“It was hoped that this move, which was condemned by the World Bank, would reduce the cost of international transfers — an important consideration for a country that is reliant on money sent home by workers overseas,” it read.

A Guinness World Records spokesperson told Cointelegraph that each edition “tries to reflect that year’s zeitgeist and the topics our readers are likely to be discussing,” with crypto joining the likes of space travel and TikTok as key subjects.

“We will be watching this space with interest over the next few years, as the technologies that underpin crypto develop and find a wider range of applications,” they said.

Related: Walmart CTO says crypto will become a 'major' payments disruptor

When asked about what was the most head-scratching and monumental records from Cryptomania, the spokesperson highlighted the innovation of Bitcoin, noting that it took the company a long time to get its head around it:

“Researching this title involved not only figuring out how to describe what a blockchain is [...] but also putting into context decades of cryptocurrency research and what made it different to any earlier projects.”

Last week, crypto exchange Binance also revealed that it had broken a Guinness World Record after it was recognized for conducting the largest crypto lesson to date, with 289 people in attendance at Blockchain Land Nuevo León on Oct. 7.

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

Beers for Bitcoin: Here’s the story of Satoshi’s Place pub in the UK

Cointelegraph’s Joseph Hall visited a Bitcoin-themed bar in Greater Manchester and spoke with its founder, Adam.

While opening a Bitcoin-themed bar sounds like a dream for many Bitcoiners, it also comes with its challenges, according to Adam (who did not share his last name), the founder of Satoshi’s Place. 

Cointelegraph reporter Joseph Hall visited a Bitcoin-themed pub called Satoshi’s Place and sat down with its founder. The duo talked about the place’s history, how it came to be and the difficulties of running a Bitcoin business in the United Kingdom.

According to Adam, he first got into Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013. Five years later, he opened a coffee and breakfast shop that accepted Bitcoin payments with its own Bitcoin ATM. Back then, the founder highlighted that they did not have the Bitcoin Lightning Network and had to wait for a bit for payments to go through. He explained that:

“That was literally layer one. It wasn't lightning, it was slow. But I mean, it was only kind of small amounts anyway. So, we just let the user sit down and watch the transaction and stuff.”

After a while, the cafe's team did some testing over the years but had difficulties in terms of adoption and troubles with their bank. “I had a bank account here which got blocked for about a year just for taking Bitcoin payments,” he said. Adam highlighted that even though everything was documented properly and presented to the banks, their accounts were still blocked. 

Despite the issues faced, the founder said that they still carried on. From just being a coffee shop, the place started to offer pizzas in honor of the Bitcoin Pizza Day. Eventually, the place also offered workshops to those who wanted to learn about Bitcoin. “Everything from Lightning education, Bitcoin for kids, Bitcoin development, all different types. There are about 16 hosts that I've got up to now that want to do workshops,” Adam noted.

Related: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust trades at a record 36.7% discount, but is it justified?

After the growth of the workshops and the reception for Bitcoin in the area, the founder eventually turned the place into Satoshi’s Place, in celebration of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator. The place offers a Bitcoin-themed atmosphere with hand dryers emitting heat from a Bitcoin miner.

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele Takes Aim at Bitcoin Detractors, Says the Ones Who Are Afraid ‘Are the World’s Powerful Elites’

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele Takes Aim at Bitcoin Detractors, Says the Ones Who Are Afraid ‘Are the World’s Powerful Elites’It’s been over a year since El Salvador codified bitcoin as legal tender in the Latin American country, and by popping the ‘orange pill,’ the country was propelled into the international spotlight. At the end of September, the 41-year-old Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele penned an opinion editorial that takes aim at the detractors who think […]

Hong Kong Launches Second Phase of Its CBDC Pilot Program