Bitcoin and its meteoric rise to $20,000 in December 2017 caught the attention of major mainstream media and the public eye, as early investors in the crypto asset shared stories of insane profits generated by the new and misunderstood technology. But the parabolic advance during 2017 pales in comparison to Bitcoin’s 200,000,000% increase in a matter of nine years.
That rise, says one economist, is the greatest and fastest rise ever witnessed in any asset type, and it could be due to one specific design aspect built into Bitcoin’s code.
Economist: Nothing Has Ever Risen As Fast and As Much As Bitcoin Has Risen
Beirut-based academic economist Dr. Saifedean Ammous is the author of the book The Bitcoin Standard. In his research, he spends a great deal of time focusing on the first-ever cryptocurrency as was designed by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto over a decade ago.
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Since Bitcoin was released into the wild, it’s been on a journey from virtually worthless, to someday becoming – potentially – the native global currency for the internet. Along the way, the leading crypto by market cap has been called a bubble a number of times, as analysts warned of a looming bubble pop that’d leave investors scorned. But after each bubble pops, BTC continues along its path to success.
Bitcoin is not only incomparable to bubbles, its fast rise is also incomparable to the most successful companies and innovators. As far as I can tell, nothing has ever risen as fast and as much as Bitcoin has risen. — Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean)
This path, says Dr. Ammous, is the fastest and largest rise of an asset ever witnessed, even when comparing investing just $100 in BTC against the likes of Apple, Microsoft, General Electric or Google parent company Alphabet.
“Bitcoin is a completely new animal, different from all before it,” . “Your old toolbox for analyzing bubbles, currencies, and stocks doesn’t work on it.”
Halving Makes Bitcoin an Asset Designed to Rise Fast
The reason behind Bitcoin’s ability to rise further and faster than any other monetary asset before it? Dr. Ammous attributes the asset’s unique ability to generate gains to the mining difficulty adjustment that occurs every several years.
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When Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin, a proof of work consensus was added to verify each new block being added to the blockchain. Miners are rewarded with a set amount of BTC for securing the network and validating transactions. These rewards, however, are reduced every few years at each Bitcoin “halving.”
Bitcoin is a completely new animal, different from all before it. Your old toolbox for analyzing bubbles, currencies, and stocks doesn't work on it.
— Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean)
My explanation for this rise is that bitcoin's difficulty adjustment makes it a truly unique monetary asset built to rise fast.
Each halving reduces the amount of BTC miners receive, therefore throwing off the balance of supply and demand. With less supply being rewarded to miners, there is less selling pressure on the market which can cause the asset to rise quickly in price. Traders have also began to take notice of this behavior, which further adds fuel to the rocket as they begin accumulating the cryptocurrency at around 18-months out from the next halving.
The next Bitcoin halving date is currently set for around May 23, 2020, which would suggest Bitcoin’s accumulation phase has begun, and the asset could increase to potentially “millions” in the future.