Bitcoin Has Been The Best Currency Investment For Over 12 Years

Although not designed as an investment vehicle, Bitcoin’s rise in value has made it the best currency investment you could have made in the last 12 years. Bitcoin Has Been The Best Currency Investment For Over 12 Years

Bitcoin (BTC)’s value appreciation over the past 11 years sets it apart from virtually all of the world’s fiat currencies.

Central banks around the globe continue to churn out money, deliberately devaluing existing currency through inflation. They have also had a lot longer than Bitcoin’s 11 years for the effects to accumulate. So how do major fiat currencies compare to Bitcoin?

Bitcoin — The Bar By Which Others Will Be Measured

The first Bitcoins were mined on Jan. 3, 2009.

The first widely accepted commercial transaction was on May 22, 2010. Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in an event that has since been immortalized as Bitcoin Pizza Day. With the pizzas worth about $30, this puts a value of around $0.003 on one BTC at this point.

Exchange rates were being calculated even before this though, based on the amount of energy it took to mine each Bitcoin. On October 5, 2009, this method suggested an exchange rate of $1 = 1,309.03 BTC, or $0.000764 for one BTC.

However it is unclear whether anyone bought any Bitcoin at this theoretical price point, so for simplicity’s sake we will put an initial price of $0.003 on Bitcoin almost exactly 10 years ago. In those ten years BTC price has appreciated over 320 million percent.

Good Luck Fiat Currencies. You’ll Need It

The U.S. dollar has been the official currency of the United States since the Coinage Act of 1792. So how has its value fared in the ensuing 228 years?

According to consumer price index data, $1 in 1792 bought the equivalent of $26.71 today. In other words, it has lost over 96% of its value in 228 years.

This figure may come as a surprise, as one often hears statistics about the dollar losing much of its value since 1900. However both of these facts are true. The value of the dollar went both up and down in its first 150 years, and the vast majority of its value has been lost since its decoupling from the gold standard in 1971.

The Plucky European Challenger

The euro became legal tender on January 1, 1999, when it superseded the national currencies of participating countries, making it just 10 years older than Bitcoin. Surely such a modern invention should compare better?

Sadly no, as the Euro suffers from the same design issues as the dollar. Inflation has meant that 1 euro today is worth the equivalent of 0.70 euro in 1999, meaning that it has lost thirty percent of its value in just 21 years.

Sound As A Pound?

The oldest world currency still in use is the British pound. which is an impressive 1,200 plus years old.

Of course, the decimalized pound sterling of today is a far cry from the original pound, which predates the formation of Britain and even of England (with the unification of the Angles, Saxons and Danes in 927). This makes a direct comparison of the value then and now somewhat moot.

However the original 8th Century “pound” was composed of 240 silver pennies, comprising one Mercian pound of fine silver, hence the name. [N.B. Later this became one tower pound of sterling silver, giving us the pound sterling.]

One Mercian pound was equivalent to 350g, which at today’s silver price would be valued at £156.45 ($200). So, if we consider the original precious metal value rather than the spending power of the currency, in 1,200 years the coin of the realm has arguably appreciated by 15,545%.
Well if we’re using that logic…

When the Coinage Act was passed in 1792, the dollar also had a similar definition, being 371.25 grains (or 24 grams) of silver. This is worth $13.58 today, so one could equally claim that, in terms of the silver value, the original dollar has appreciated by 1,258% in the last 228 years.

Even more impressively, anyone who had kept hold of a silver dollar from 1792, would today find themselves in possession of an artefact worth around a million dollars. So an actual 1792 dollar has arguably appreciated by 100 million percent in value.

Of course, even if we do choose to measure our relative currency value in this way, it still doesn’t hold a candle to Bitcoin’s performance over the last 10 years.

Plus your 1792 dollar will be a lot harder to spend.

Updated: 6-10-2020

Bitcoin Still Outperforms Stocks After Halving

Strong network fundamentals, accumulation by institutional investors, and BTC’s year-to-date performance point to a positive future for Bitcoin.

Data published today from Cointelegraph Markets and on-chain data provider lookintobitcoin found that the Bitcoin (BTC) price remains well positioned as on-chain analysis and BTC’s reaction to global events continue to play to the crypto asset’s strengths.

Bitcoin’s block reward halving occurred nearly a month ago and many analysts believe the event failed to produce the strong pre and post halving rally investors expected. Despite this, there is ongoing evidence that retail and institutional investors remain focused on accumulating Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

As shown by data from Skew, Bitcoin continues to lead among asset classes as the best performing asset with a 35.39% gain year-to-date.

Proof of increasing institutional investor interest is supported by recent reporting that crypto fund manager Grayscale Investments is “accumulating Bitcoin at a rate equivalent to 150% of the new coins created by miners since the May 11 block reward halving.”

Furthermore, in May hedge fund CEO Paul Tudor Jones announced that Tudor Investment Corp, had allocated roughly 1-2 percent of funds under management to Bitcoin CME futures.

Retail Interest Continues To Surge

There has also been a noticeable uptick in consumer interest in cryptocurrency and digital payments service, Square, recently announced that its Bitcoin revenues increased by 71% versus the previous quarter to $306 million.

Bitcoin adoption is surging due to global uncertainties and the increasing popularity of digital currencies resulted in peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges Paxful and Local Bitcoins seeing surging demand throughout Africa and Latin America.

On-chain Data Supports The Current Bullish Outlook

According to lookintobitcoin, on-chain metrics show Bitcoin’s fundamentals remain bullish despite any threats of post-halving miner capitulation and turmoil in global markets.

Even through the March 13 cataclysmic drop to $3,750 there was continued growth in the number of Bitcoin addresses with balances below 1 BTC.

On-chain data also shows that longterm investors continued to hold through the crash and after the halving, suggesting Bitcoin holders have no intent to sell over the short to medium-term.

Investors View Dips As Buying Opportunities

To date, Bitcoin price continues to meet resistance at $10,000 but the asset remains in an uptrend as investors have been buying into each dip below $9,500. According to lookintobitoin creator Philip Swift:

“The recent confluence of the 200 day moving average and the 128 day MA creates an area of important support for price. During the 2016/17 bull market the 128 MA frequently acted as key support for price.

Again, two weeks ago, price bounced right off it and ran back towards the $10,000 area.”

Swift further explained that while Bitcoin continues to retest the $10,000 area it is “noteworthy that retraces from $10K are becoming less violent each time, suggesting buyers are stepping in earlier in anticipation of $10K ultimately being breached.”