Bitcoin: 91% of Cryptos From 2014 Have Died, While Bitcoin Continues to Thrive

Ethereum: Nearly $9B worth of ETH was burned in 1.4 years

Stablecoins: Declining Demand for Binance's BUSD Represents New Chapter in Stablecoin Wars

Payments: One Million Commerce Payments Made with Crypto Last Year

Miners: Bitcoin Miner Core Scientific Reaches Agreement To Shut Off Celsius Mining Rigs

Earlier this week, on January 3, Bitcoin (BTC) celebrated its 14th birthday. That is, 14 years to the day that its genesis block was mined and the first transactions on the network were verified, which should prompt a bit of a review of Bitcoin’s history and how it all works into today’s price. Following the genesis block, it took six days for the second block to be mined, but throughout the rest of Bitcoin’s lifespan since, a new block, containing an average of nearly 1,800 transactions these days, has been mined every 10 minutes. That taut schedule is maintained by autonomous adjustments of the Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty, which changes every 2,016 blocks (approximately two weeks’ time) to accommodate for the number of miners utilizing the network, as well as gradual improvements in hardware speeds.

More than 770,600 blocks on from genesis, here we are today with Bitcoin’s immutable ledger continuing to process transactions endlessly, having settled tens of trillions of dollars. In 2022 alone, $8.2 trillion was transferred via the Bitcoin blockchain. That figure works out to an average of $260,000 per second.

If we go back to the first transaction denominated in USD, which occurred on October 12, 2009 and involved the sale of 5050 BTC for $5.02, we can calculate an initial exchange rate for BTC-USD at $0.00099. From there to an all-time high near $70,000 in 2021, and now back to about $16,700 as of this morning, the network simply keeps operating irrespective of these fluctuations. Total uptime for the Bitcoin network since its January 2009 launch is equivalent to 99.99%, 24 hours and 7 days per week.

Though the price volatility of Bitcoin continues to gradually stabilize throughout each of Bitcoin’s halving cycles – every four years, the amount of BTC mined per day is cut in half – Bitcoin has fallen into a particularly stable price pattern as of late. According to Ecoinometrics, the 30-day rolling volatility of BTC has fallen very close to the bottom of the current halving cycle’s volatility distribution.

Part of that recent stability likely has to do with a larger share of the supply being accumulated by “strong hands”, those who have little proclivity to sell their Bitcoin as the price falls. The durability of these bear market buyers can be measured through on-chain metrics, particularly how long a certain share of BTC’s circulating supply has gone unspent. Roughly 66.4%, or slightly more than two-thirds of the supply, has not moved in a year or more. That has fallen from an all-time high of 66.9% in November, but longer-term gauges, including coins that have been unspent for more than two years have continued to make new all-time highs. Per Glassnode, the percentage of BTC’s supply last active more than two years ago has is now equivalent to 47.7%.

One final noteworthy trait about the genesis block, which has an interesting connection to the continued distribution of Bitcoin’s network today, is a message encoded into it by Pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. Within the coinbase parameter of the block, the phrase “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” can be found; a UK newspaper headline for that date and, moreover, a testament to the founding ideal of Bitcoin. Putting aside speculation about its price in dollar terms, Bitcoin’s foundational purpose the creation of means by which every person could essentially become their own bank with sound digital money that could not be debased by any central authority.

As Satoshi himself stated in a 2009 blog post, “The root problem with conventional currencies is all the trust that’s required to make it work”. That issue was exemplified by the failure or near-failure of many banks throughout the financial system in 2008-2009. The mismanagement of humans running such institutions creates risk and many sovereign governments have shown that there is little punishment for massive mistakes resulting from mismanagement of that risk. A “bailout” of banks and the resulting monetary and/or fiscal stimulus required to fight any fallout caused by financial crises, requires inflation of the money supply and, therefore, a large debasement of purchasing power that disproportionately damages those who have relatively little cash and potentially had nothing to do with the catalyst of such crises.

Bitcoin is money with a fixed supply and distribution schedule that cannot be inflated or altered in any other way. It can also be self-custodied to minimize trust in institutions. Recent data from Glassnode and IntoTheBlock show that about 17% of Bitcoin’s total circulating supply is held by retail investors, or entities with 10 BTC ($167,000) or less. That figure has been continually increasing as number of wallets holding 0.01+, 0.1+, and 1.0+ BTC have each set new all-time highs within the past couple of days.

October 18, 2022: Fallout From Ethereum “Merge” Bolsters Bitcoin’s Hash Rate as Some Criticisms Still Linger →

October 7, 2022: Ethereum’s Post-Merge Era Conquers Key Goals, Yet Centralization and Regulation Concerns Linger →

August 8, 2022: BTC Rebound Set to Revitalize Crypto Miners Bent by Bear Market Pressure →

June 22, 2022: SEC Decision on Key Bitcoin ETF Application Looms as Grayscale Preps Lawsuit, Dissent Rises From Within →

June 2, 2022: Sweeping Ethereum “Merge” Set For Launch as Soon as August, Solidifying New Proof-of-Stake Consensus →

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