Bitcoin adoption will happen at its own speed

by James · February 24, 2023

Friday 24 February 2023 at 10.48

The week in review

Another week, another increase in underlying optimism in the markets.

Not that this fact really makes any difference to me, as would appear from my last two years of commenting in this column. After all, I am not a trader. Instead, I’m interested in global adoption of Bitcoin and the underlying numbers that support it, all of which show a consistent increase no matter which indicator you use.

That said, Bitcoin adoption seems to happen at its own speed, and the reality of trying to run it too fast is that it doesn’t work; that is, before the stage where people are ready to use it or really understand it. We know from our own experience how complicated it seems at first, and since the average person has no idea how money actually works anyway, the whole process from end to end can take a lot of time.

I was reminded of this on my last trip to El Salvador where, as you recall, Bitcoin is legal tender and technically merchants are supposed to offer it all the time, but the reality is that on this last visit I had noticed changes in just a few months that seemed to suggest things were going the other way.

For example, the countless “Pay with a strike” signs had disappeared from the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador, and Chivo ATMs were noticeably quieter. So during a lunch meeting with Guillermo Contreras, CEO of DitoBanx, I asked why.

His response was that Bitcoin usage had fallen sharply in the country since its adoption in 2021 and was now only used by around 1.5% of the population. Strike and others had almost closed their offices citing lack of revenue from transactions.

However, he remained incredibly optimistic about the future, making it clear that a) this was entirely expected due to the flurry of activity caused by the initial $30 offered by the government when it first launched, and b) since you can’t “ounce” Bitcoin when you see it, mass adoption of Bitcoin is inevitable. The “hard core” user base in the country is growing steadily and the reduced cost of sending money from abroad is now fully proven. However, it’s going to take a lot longer to get back to normal than everyone initially expected.

Bitcoin miners also have full confidence in the future. As one myself, I can vouch for it anecdotally, but the underlying data also supports this. Not only is the fascinating renewable energy case increasing, but by the time this article is published, the difficulty will have jumped about 11% to over 40T for the very first time in Bitcoin’s history. Here, difficulties are mainly related to self-confidence.

In other news, the Ukrainians also got a big confidence boost this week when President Biden stopped by and promised more military hardware to drive Russia’s faltering forces from the borders. It was a moving meeting, but perhaps the most satisfying part of the entire event was the spectacle of Russian TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov – known for his hatred of anything non-Russian (or indeed anything truthful) – who attempted to convince his co-hosts that Biden had asked Putin’s permission before doing so.

It didn’t go well, but what’s most important to note here is that this is the first time there’s been very public discord and disagreement about this flagship prime-time show. Contradicting the host is simply not done, and Putin, no doubt from his bunker, would not have been amused.

Is it wrong for me to enjoy it a little?

Have a nice weekend!

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Yesterday’s Crypto AM Daily in collaboration with Luno

In the markets

The Bitcoin Economy

*Data can be found at

Total market cap of crypto

The total capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency market this morning was 1.093 billion dollars.

What Bitcoin Did Yesterday

We closed yesterday, February 23, at a price of $24,188. The daily high yesterday was $24,472, and the daily low was $23,644.

Bitcoin market value

Bitcoin’s market value this morning was $461,306 billions. To put that into context, the market cap for gold is $12.082 trillion and Tesla is $639.8 billion.

Bitcoin volume

The total spot trading volume reported by all exchanges in the last 24 hours was 28.932 billion dollars. High volumes can indicate that a significant price move has stronger support and is more likely to be sustained.

Volatility

The price volatility of Bitcoin in the last 30 days is 37.06%.

Fear and Greed Index

The market sentiment today is 53in neutral.

Bitcoin’s market dominance

Bitcoin’s market dominance today is 44.95. Its lowest recorded dominance was 37.09 on January 1, 2018.

Relative Strength Index (RSI)

The daily RSI is currently 58.26. Values of 70 or higher indicate that an asset is overbought and may be poised for a trend reversal or experience a correction in price – an RSI reading of 30 or lower indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.

Convince your family: Today’s soundbite

The main advantage of blockchain technology is supposed to be that it is more secure, but new technologies are generally difficult for people to trust, and this paradox cannot really be avoided.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum

What they said yesterday

Bitcoin is money for the digital age…

There are 180 fiat currencies.
150 of them store less value than #Bitcoin

— Eric Weiss ⚡️ (@Eric_BIGfund) 23 February 2023

Interesting…

https://www.cityam.com/profile/crypto-am-founders-series/