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Record high inflation, war, and economic upheaval are showcasing Bitcoin’s real-world use case.
Key points
- After weeks of decline and sideways price action, Bitcoin’s price was up as high as 17% within the past 24 hours.
- The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has also seen a massive spike in trading volume of 58% within the same period.
- There are five primary Bitcoin attributes that stand out amidst the backdrop of inflation, war, and economic uncertainty of individuals that are driving this increased interest.
So far, 2022 has been a pretty lousy year on the macro front — with high inflation spreading across the world, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the 30% collapse of the Russian currency, and innocent citizens in various countries trying to protect the value of the money they have.
Amidst that background of fear, uncertainty, and conflict, the underlying strengths of Bitcoin are emerging and driving it as an investment option worth considering.
Bitcoin volume and price are surging double digits
According to CoinMarketCap at the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price was up as much as 17% within the past 24 hours, hitting a peak of $44,755.68 at 8:09 a.m. EST this morning. More importantly, the same website shows that the trading volume of the first cryptocurrency ever created was up a whooping 58% since yesterday.
That dramatic increase in trading volume suggests that there is a lot of interest and demand for Bitcoin. Reasons for that could include economic sanctions against Russia, the cratering of Russia’s currency — the ruble — over the weekend, and Russian citizens scrambling to convert those depreciated assets into alternatives, namely Bitcoin. Here are some of the reasons that make Bitcoin more attractive right now.
Five attributes of Bitcoin driving current demand
- Scarcity. There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin and 90% of that amount has already been mined. Once that maximum supply is produced and in circulation, the price is likely to increase significantly since demand continues to grow.
- Security. Because every transaction is encrypted and occurs on an immutable blockchain, every transaction can be verified but cannot be tampered with, hacked, counterfeited, or changed.
- Decentralization. Bitcoin is not owned by any individual entirety, company, organization, or government. Every attempt to shut down Bitcoin over its 13 year existence has failed.
- Divisibility. Every Bitcoin can be broken down into 100 million subunits called “Satoshis” and with the growth of the Lightning Network, making small everyday purchases using Bitcoin subunits is easier and faster on a global scale.
- Borderless portability. Speaking of global scale, the only thing you need to send or receive Bitcoin directly to an individual anywhere in the world is an internet connection with Bitcoin wallets on either end. Also, you can memorize your unique 12-word code to your Bitcoin wallet so you don’t even have to carry anything with you when traveling, enabling you to access your wallet from anywhere. Try that with gold bars, diamonds, or stacks of cash.
This discussion is not financial advice and every investor should do their own research and be sure to only invest what they can afford to lose, however, the strengths of Bitcoin are becoming clearer as geopolitical circumstances become cloudier and more confusing.
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