The crypto market looks pretty mixed today, but most coins are trading in the green.
Bitcoin is now trading in the green as well, and the most important digital asset is priced at $10,241.49.
Bitcoin vs. gold
The total market cap of gold is currently around $1 trillion, and this is more than 38 times the one of BTC.
Coinbase said that BTC could definitely become a viable store of value in the digital age and a viable alternative to gold.
According to a recent blog post, Coinbase argues that the cryptocurrency offers six advantages over the traditional asset.
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The ability to trace transactions on the ledger
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Low fees for cross-border transfers
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Peer-to-peer pseudonymous transactions protecting privacy
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Portability
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Divisibility
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Scarcity
Gold’s ability to store value is due to its scarcity and BTC can replicate this via the hard cap of only 21 million units.
It’s important to note that so far 18 million are already out there.
Bitcoin’s halving is scheduled in May and the BTC production will be dropping from 12,5 to 6.25 every 10 minutes.
Coinbase also said that the halving would make sure that miners who are powering the network will remain incentivized to stay online.
“One might assume that fewer miners would secure the network as the mining reward successively drops after each Halving. However, the economics of Bitcoin tend to be resilient and self-balancing,” says Coinbase.
The notes continue and explained that “After two halvings in the past that limited rewards to miners, mining power (aka hashrate) has recently reached all-time highs. Or in other words, as bitcoin’s supply has edged toward its 21 million limit, network security has increased in parallel (log).”
Despite the volatility of the crypto market, Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee says that Bitcoin has the potential to reach more highs this year.
In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Power Lunch, Lee said that Bitcoin is now at the start of a new bull run.