1 Million Bitcoin HODLers. That’s all?

I saw this tweet by StrictlyBTC the other day and it’s really bothering me! For those who don’t know, there are only 21 million Bitcoins that can ever be created.

About 19 million have been created (mined) already and that leaves 2 million left to mine.  

About 4 million have been lost. By my  math that leaves (19-4)= 15 million bitcoin up for grabs today. There are an estimated 100 million people who have used Bitcoin thus far.  A recent estimate has shown that about 1 million Bitcoin addresses are  holding 1 BTC.

Now it is very easy for any person to have more than 1 wallet. So the number of people who actually own 1 Bitcoin might be higher or lower. It’s possible there are many people who have 2 wallets and 0.5 BTC in each so they will own 1 BTC. It’s also possible (and likely) that many of the 1 BTC and over wallets are held by the same person. So 2 of the 1 BTC wallets might be owned by 1 person. To keep it simple I am going to continue to estimate that there are 1 million people who hold 1 BTC.

There are 47 million millionaires in the world. There aren’t enough Bitcoins for each US dollar millionaire to own even 1 BTC!

Many of these millionaires are older people, since on average, you accumulate wealth as you age which probably makes it less likely for them to accumulate bitcoin as they don’t understand it or don’t see value in it. 

The current price of bitcoin is $17,000/coin. This is down significantly from its previous peak of $69k. If each millionaire was to purchase 1 bitcoin that would be 1.7% of their wealth, for the people who are “merely” $1 millionaires, and if they were to just hold it, as more people would continue to purchase bitcoin that would drive the price up significantly.
Many people would argue that this is possible with any asset, which is partially true. But the main difference between Bitcoin and any other asset is it’s ability to be purchased by anyone in the world at any time, essentially, it’s liquidity. 

“They aren’t making any more land” is a commonly heard phrase. Which is not exactly true for many reasons. 

The Dutch reclaim land from the ocean regularly.

The United Arab Emirates hired the Dutch to build some new land.

Unproductive land is regularly turned into productive land. 

Land has another issue, you usually only buy land locally.

Most other assets have similar issues, or unique issues to each asset, that make them difficult to buy.
There are only ever 21 million Bitcoin and they are the ultimate liquid asset.

For these reasons it is just blowing my mind that Bitcoin has continued to drop in price.

Historically, Bitcoin has gained interest from people, myself included, as its price runs up. When the price is going down, no one cares. I fell victim to this in 2017 when it ran up to $17k and then lost value from 2018-2020. I didn’t pay attention and missed out buying in the $3,000-$5,000 range. 

I started reading a LOT more the next time it ran up in 2021 to $69k. As it’s continued into the current crypto winter I have tried to avoid the mistake I made in the last “crypto winter”. I have continued to accumulate. I have been “Orange Pilled”. 

Since I’ve read so much I also fell victim to the thinking that everyone else was learning the same stuff I was. Seeing that there are only ~ 1 million people holding 1 BTC I see I am still very early. Bitcoin is early. 

But it is legal tender in El Salvador and CAR. 

It is gaining more users every day. 

Hashing power is rising.

There are more Bitcoin conferences every day.

I am very curious to see how Bitcoin adoption continues over the next years!
If you want to learn more about Bitcoin you can contact me via email or comment below!

Bitcoin As Legal Tender Around The World

One interesting thing about bitcoin adoption is places that allow it to be used either as a legal tender (El Salvador) or for payments (many businesses). I think what is most exciting is the game theory that plays out as more and more nations adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. Being a finite resource, only 21 million bitcoins, will ever be created, there is an incentive to adopt early as a reserve asset. “Getting in on the ‘ground’ floor”. 

Of course, some countries have less incentive to do that. For example, the United States enjoys huge benefits of the USD being the world reserve currency. To adopt bitcoin openly would show lowering faith in the USD, so likely, America will be one of the last countries to openly buy bitcoin. 

El Salvador was the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. It has already given up it’s own currency and all transactions in the country were beign done in US dollars. Adopting bitcoin as a secondary payment method/legal tender really isn’t that big of a deal. 

Now there are a few more small autonomous regions that have started to also allow Bitcoin to be used as legal tenders:

 Lugano, Switzerland

Prospera, Roatan Island, Honduras

Madeira, Portugal

Rio De Janerio (for property tax payments)

The best number I could find was El Salvador owns 1800 bitcoins. I believe it is a few more as this was in Jan 2022. When comparing their population (6.5 million) to the world population (7.9 billion) and their bitcoin holdings (1800) to total bitcoin available (21 million) they hold about the right proportion relative to the world. But Since they are accumulating more, while the rest of the world doesn’t, they should pull ahead and have the economic benefits of that as the price rises. 

There are a few other more autonomous areas that have also legalized bitcoin. 

Lugano, Switzerland, has formed a partnership with stablecoin issuer Tether to establish bitcoin, Tether and Lugano’s own LVGA Points token as essentially legal tender in the city.r”

Rio De Janeiro Is Giving People a 10% Discount to Pay Taxes in Bitcoin

Honduras’ Roatán Island, Portugal’s Madeira to ‘Adopt Bitcoin’

https://cryptonews.com/news/honduras-roatan-island-portugals-madeira-to-adopt-bitcoin-mexican-senator-sends-bullish-sign-too.htm

More information about what exactly Madeira is. 

More information about what exactly Prospera (Rotan Island, Honduras) is.

Of course, Bitcoin is still quite risky. Then again, everything is risky.

Stocks are risky as any 1 company could go under. 

Holding cash is risky as it can be inflated away as a country prints more of it. This has happened in many countries in history. Just because it hasn’t happened in the USA yet is not a good reason to think it couldn’t! (I recommend this book , Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail -by Ray Dalio, as a very interesting history primer on money).  

There’s also a 1 hour youtube video summary, by the author, if you don’t want to listen to the whole book. 

As always, this is not investment advice or telling you to buy bitcoin. But I believe it is a very interesting technology and certainly worth learning about!