Since its birth in 2009, Bitcoin has been on a remarkable run.
The cryptocurrency was at first a medium of exchange and digital money for the fringe — used by those that wanted to bypass the pitfalls of traditional payment solutions, wanted to make a bet on the future of fintech, or wanted to make a statement against the fiat system, which was then embroiled in the aftermath of 2008’s Great Recession.
Now, Bitcoin has entered the mainstream, frequenting the headlines of mainstream media outlets, becoming a part of the world’s vernacular, and referenced by many a corporation. In fact, the cryptocurrency was briefly mentioned in a report by Deutsche Bank as an alternative form of money for the future after the potential collapse of fiat currencies.
In short, Bitcoin has done well over its decade-long lifespan.
According to a recent report from online business statistics and analytics blog Howmuch.net, Bitcoin has done so well that it is the “investment of the decade,” for it has appreciated by a jaw-dropping number of percent since it was launched in 2009.
How to Turn $100 Into $9.2 Million? Bitcoin, That’s How
According to Howmuch.net’s latest analysis, Bitcoin easily beat any other mainstream investment in existence; they noted that investing $100 into the cryptocurrency ten years ago would have provided you with $9.2 million worth of coins today, if you held them that as.
For some perspective, $100 in Amazon ten years ago would have netted you $3,300, Apple $2,400, Visa $1,700, and so on and so forth:
“Even with Bitcoin’s latest price implosion, the cryptocurrency has still created an astonishing 9,150,088% return. Other companies like Amazon (+3,156%) and Apple (+2,345%) are still impressive, but nothing truly compares to the king of the crypto world.”
This statistic has been corroborated by historical events. Ten years ago as of earlier this year, an individual purchased 5,050 Bitcoin for $5.02 in the first market transaction for BTC, which was well-documented.
Today, that same sum of coins is worth some $37.5 million. This means that the cryptocurrency has gained over 500,000,000% from its first sale price.
Ten years ago today, 5,050 btc were sold for $5.02 in the first market transaction for bitcoin.
Today, they'd be worth $42,171,792.50.
A rise of 838,078,685%. https://t.co/yCvJ9TrrSn
— Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean) October 12, 2019
Price Has Room to Run
While hundreds of thousands or millions of percent is obviously an already ludicrous return in and of itself, especially considering that this appreciation took place within a ten-year time period (a mere blip on a cosmic scale), some say that Bitcoin still has room to run. A lot more room.
In a very to-the-point tweet, Raoul Pal, a former executive of Goldman Sachs’s European Hedge Fund sales business who has been an advocate for the leading cryptocurrency for at least five years now, argued that “Bitcoin is still very cheap… on a longer-term time horizon.” As to why he believes this is the case, the current CEO of financial media startup Real Vision, has a few theses.
Just an FYI on a Sunday morning…$BTC #bitcoin Bitcoin is up 15 million percent from launch (down from 25 million percent at peak).
This best performing asset in all recorded history.
And on a longer-term time horizon, its still very cheap, in my opinion.
— Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) September 22, 2019
Firstly, he thinks that the cryptocurrency can as an investment hedge in a financial meltdown. He earlier this year told his followers that it may be wise to purchase bonds, dollars, diamonds, and, of course, Bitcoin. The idea here is that the aforementioned assets store their value, even across long periods of time and recessions.
Pal also remarked in a podcast with Bitcoin podcaster Stephan Livera that BTC is the only asset that makes sense for millennials and younger demographics, as other assets (even real estate) remain highly overvalued.
And lastly, he has claimed that the establishment of digital money systems, even something like Facebook’s Libra, will only drive capital towards Bitcoin and gold”. In a sub-tweet, Pal further explained his thoughts, responding “exactly” to a comment claiming that Libra or something similar will as an on-ramp for the cryptocurrency market.
