Following the launch of Bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the financial world is trying to come to grips with what Bitcoin really is.
The total market cap of cryptocurrencies has surpassed the $500 bln mark - and it’s fair to say that every financial institution is sitting up and taking stock of virtual currencies and their underlying Blockchain technology.
However, many people are still in the dark and have less than a basic understanding of cryptocurrencies.
Keiser - three characteristics of Bitcoin
In the latest edition of the Keiser Report on RT, show host Max Keiser speculated on the effect that Bitcoin futures would have on the Bitcoin market.
As per usual, he threw some pretty big numbers around, insisting that the launch of futures has made the pipeline bigger for fiat currencies to flow into Bitcoin.
However, his analysis of what truly makes Bitcoin an exceptional store of value is intriguing, given that it challenges Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper published back in 2009:
“People don’t understand that at its heart, Bitcoin is a messaging app first, a store of value secondly and a medium of exchange third. The Satoshi whitepaper is a bit misleading because it leads off by calling Bitcoin digital cash.”
“That’s kind of misleading. It’s not really digital cash until it first establishes itself as a messaging app. Money and economics are the history of communication, trade and language. Language explodes onto the scene, trade explodes onto the scene, messaging apps explode onto the scene and similarly Bitcoin has exploded onto the scene.”
Bitcoin is eating debt
Bitcoin has constantly been called gold 2.0 by various financial experts including the likes of the Winklevoss twins and Keiser himself. However, the American broadcaster insists that Bitcoin’s price needs to be related to global debt to realize it’s true potential value.
“You have to look at Bitcoin in relation to global debt. It’s not like $7 tln in gold, there’s $300 tln in debt - I’ve done the calculations. That would imply a Bitcoin price of over $2 mln a coin to monetize and get rid of that debt.”
Futures paving the way to $1 tln market cap
It’s fitting that the overall market cap of cryptocurrency has reached half a trillion dollars in the first week of Bitcoin futures trading. In relation to other markets, it is small, but considering this marks the start of mainstream financial acceptance, more money will flow into virtual currencies.
As Keiser explains, the capacity for future value is only being made bigger:
“It will create a bigger pipe for more money to flow into Bitcoin. Right now the pipe is small, it’s a relatively minuscule market compared to the bond futures, currency futures and stock futures. $5 tln in forex per day is the market. Bitcoin in that arena is a pipsqueak.”
“By expanding these futures contracts and derivatives, bringing Wall Street and Chicago into the mix, your taking that small straw which is an onramp for fiat into Bitcoin and your making it massively bigger.”
With global debt amounting to hundreds of trillions of dollars, Keiser sees Bitcoin sucking that up as the value of cryptocurrencies rises.
“The cryptocurrency market cap will top the trillion dollar level and hit multi-trillion levels because it has this amazing quantum effect, pulling all the fiat money into the Bitcoin black hole store of value.”
Check out the latest episode of the Keiser Report.