Finance

Bitcoin’s Fair Value: Rise to the Moon or Fall Back to Zero?

The price mechanism of cryptocurrencies differs from commodities. Supply and demand are not creating an equilibrium; Bitcoin is a bet on technological development.

With Bitcoin breaking through the $5,000 mark, crypto enthusiasts have declared the start of the “Crypto Spring.” After more than a year-long crypto bear market, everyone is hungry for good news and some light at the end of the tunnel.

This month, Bitcoin crossed over the $5,000 mark after going below that floor last December. The market has been “bearish” since the end of 2017 when Bitcoin’s bubble burst. Prior to that, it reached a peak of $19,500.

Bitcoin-market-index-march-april-BlockchainLand
Bitcoin’s price index from March 01 to April 15. Source: CoinTelegraph

The market, however, can be cruel. And that’s even more true for crypto markets, as high volatility makes it hard to distinguish between short term price hikes and long-term upwards trends. So, let’s look at the bigger picture.

Bitcoin’s supply and demand mechanism differs from commodities

Supply and demand determine the price of most tradeable assets. If there is higher demand, prices will go up. If the cost increases, supply increases as well. If, for instance, the price of crude oil increases, there will be an incentive for oil companies to re-activate wells that have previously been unprofitable. With increasing supply, prices should come down again. As a result of this process, there will be a so-called “equilibrium,” at which the price will stabilize.

This supply/demand mechanism is somewhat disabled when it comes to Bitcoin, as the price of Bitcoin has almost no impact on supply. Bitcoin supply is determined by the Bitcoin protocol, which allows new bitcoins to be created at a fixed rate. Thus, an increase in demand will lead to a rise in price, without the correcting mechanism of a potential increase in supply.

One could argue, that as demand goes up, so do the transaction fees that miners can charge when processing transactions. Higher transaction fees should, therefore, result in higher supply and thus lower prices.

However, the other effect of increasing transaction fees is that more miners will join the network, which does not only increase supply but also improves network security. This, in turn, should bolster buyer confidence and result in increasing demand and rising prices.

Long-term value proposition: means of payment and apolitical store of value

If there is no self-correcting price mechanism, does that mean Bitcoin is either going to zero or the moon?

If we look at Bitcoin as a commodity, it should trade around its fair value, which is its break-even point. However, it’s difficult to determine a break-even-point, because the cost of mining is ever-changing and reacts to the prevailing market conditions.

A better way to look at Bitcoin’s valuation is to look at its value proposition. Firstly, Bitcoin is a bet on technological adoption of cryptocurrencies. Currently, there are about 35 million active wallets worldwide, not a lot compared to a population of 7.6 billion. If, however, Bitcoin will ever reach mass adoption, its value will stem from its ability to be a means of payment and a store of value

Secondly, Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, meaning it’s independent of political price manipulation. In a similar fashion to gold, Bitcoin can protect value from inflation and political instability.

The Bitcoin price will thus depend on how users price this value proposition. At this point, Bitcoin volumes are low, and infrastructure is still primitive, which leads to high skepticism and thus high price volatility. However, as the underlying technology improves and adoption increases, volatility will smooth, and Bitcoin’s fundamental characteristics will increasingly predominate investment decisions.

Lukas Hofer

Lukas J. Hofer is a business writer and has years of experience in financial services and international business. He has a proven track record working with leading international companies and currently works as independent business consultant in Asia.

Related Articles

47 Comments

  1. It’s serious order avanafil online Stan Gocman and Claudia Ressler considered taking legal action against Mr Aurelius after they paid extra for the unedited version of the video of their wedding day after the first version was poor quality.

  2. Chinese Poker is often played as a side game in large poker tournaments. Typical stakes are $25, $50 and $100 per unit. Some high-stakes poker players are known to play as high as $500 or $1,000 per unit. Some even go as high as $15,000. Check this article for 2 deck poker rules. automaticpoker poker-basics can-poker-be-played-with-2-decks Now that you know and understand the best poker hands and the poker hand rankings, it’s time to move on to the rules of the game. Play, practice, watch, read, and breathe poker. You’ll get your winnings in no time. If you were to analyze a large sample of successful poker players you would notice that they all have one skill set in common: Hand Reading “That’s an Old Cat,” said the regular, pointing to a sign that said, “An Old Cat beats anything.” Bowing to the house rules the newcomer played on, and a few hours later held his own Old Cat. He bet everything he had, only to be stymied again when the regular pointed to another sign: “An Old Cat is good only once a night.”
    https://www.wimso.net/community/profile/trinidadkeysor/
    Big Win Cat is a relatively simple slot with 3 reels and just 5 paylines, featuring cute symbols that include gold coins, green pouches, turtles, pigs, fancy fans and gold fish. Joker Ra is an Egyptian-style slot machine with a funny pharaoh as a joker. The Joker Ra slot has 5 reels and 10 pay… The player is waited by jokers, standard icons, bonuses in the form of “good luck wheel” and free spins. The advantageous combination is made by three identical icons in a row. They fill one of five active bands. Advantages of the game machine Big Win Cat: simple design; clear gameplay; easy rules; good graphics; the existence of effects; high-quality study of details. Casinoisy is not affiliated or connected with any sports teams, event organizers or players displayed in its websites. Casinoisy is not affiliated or connected with any movie, television or mobile brand.

  3. WSOP Poker: Texas Holdem Game Players looking to try out the slots with a play it again day up to $2,000. That means whatever they lose in the first 24 hours up to $2,000 will be returned to them in the form of bonus credits. Claim it now with the FanDuel Casino Michigan promo code. When NY Casinos online are legalized, we can expect to see all the games that available in a physical casino space, plus much more. Live dealers games are the newest craze alongside video poker. Slot machine games will be available in their thousands at the best online casinos or mobile casino app. Legal casino sites will likely have poker rooms, blackjack and roulette. Different variants of these games may be in play from Texas Hold’em to French roulette or penny slots. All the latest and most popular slot games with progressive jackpots likely will be available.
    http://zzmall.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=free&wr_id=584
    Another benefit of having poker friends comes into play when those inevitable downswings occur. Your friends can provide an amazing source of support during the hard times, and since they are poker players themselves that support will be all the more helpful. But don’t forget to be there for them to and share your quick poker tips. We buy these packages for you cheaper In March, 2012, Zynga launched a separate social gaming platform, which included publishing other developers to the Zynga platform. Early third-party developers included Row Sham Bow, Inc and Mobscience. In June 2012, Zynga started running Facebook advertisements and sponsored stories on its website. The revenue was split between Facebook and Zynga. But it’s very important you set aside time to study. Reading poker articles, playing around with poker tools, and talking over hands with friends are a few of the many ways you can improve your game away from the table.

  4. Je suis passionné par le Référencement Naturel et les stratégies de Marketing Digital. Je participe régulièrement à des événements sur le Web Marketing et plus particulièrement le SEO. J’anime également des conférences sur différents sujets pour me tenir au courant des mises à jour de l’algorithme de Googles afin d’être plus performant pour mes clients. Cela me permet effectivement de rester au courant des dernières innovations et nouvelles opportunités de trafic pour mes clients. Formateur en SEO et Web Analytics pour les écoles lilloises ISEFAC Alternance et SUPINFO. Je communique à mes étudiants les meilleures pratiques et astuces quant à l’utilisation de la Search Console et des solutions Analytics permettant l’analyse du trafic organique ainsi les conversions d’un site Internet. Avec les étudiants de SUPINFO Lille, nous avons par exemple réalisé en 2022 le concours hesseuhau.

  5. fantastic post, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector don’t notice this. You should continue your writing. I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!

  6. Hey very nice website!! Man .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also?I am happy to find numerous useful info here in the post, we need develop more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .

  7. What¦s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It absolutely helpful and it has aided me out loads. I am hoping to give a contribution & assist other users like its aided me. Great job.

  8. Je suis passionné par le Référencement Naturel et les stratégies de Marketing Digital. Je participe régulièrement à des événements sur le Web Marketing et plus particulièrement le SEO. J’anime également des conférences sur différents sujets pour me tenir au courant des mises à jour de l’algorithme de Googles afin d’être plus performant pour mes clients. Cela me permet effectivement de rester au courant des dernières innovations et nouvelles opportunités de trafic pour mes clients. Formateur en SEO et Web Analytics pour les écoles lilloises ISEFAC Alternance et SUPINFO. Je communique à mes étudiants les meilleures pratiques et astuces quant à l’utilisation de la Search Console et des solutions Analytics permettant l’analyse du trafic organique ainsi les conversions d’un site Internet. Avec les étudiants de SUPINFO Lille, nous avons par exemple réalisé en 2022 le concours hesseuhau.

Close