Is It Too Late To Buy Bitcoin?
Every few years, Bitcoin makes the headlines for breaking its all-time high records– and every time this happens, people who have never bought BTC wonder if they’ve missed their chance for success. It makes sense to see the price of an asset soar and assume that indicates a lost opportunity, however, the reality is a little more nuanced than that. Let’s take a look at this now and see whether it really is too late to buy Bitcoin.
An Overview Of Bitcoin’s Current Market Position
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is at $68,524.82. This is not its all-time high (which is $73,737.94, reached on March 14th 2024), but it is extremely high given previous years. This places BTC at a lucrative spot, making it enticing to many traders, and causing others to feel disappointed in the possibility that they missed out on an opportunity.
It doesn’t help that the industry could now arguably be considered to be experiencing a bull run. However, this is not conclusive, as there has been less market pandemonium and skyrocketing rates as there were in previous years.
An Overview Of The History Of Bitcoin
Let’s place Bitcoin’s price into a historical context. The best way to do this would be to look at its previous all-time highs, as this is often when people get the most uncomfortable and disappointed about not buying.
As mentioned, on March 14th, 2024, BTC’s all-time high was $73,737.94. The last time Bitcoin soared was on November 9th, 2021, when it reached $67,617.34. Prior to that, it hit 63,576.12 on April 14th, 2021. If we zoom out much further, then the last meteoric rise Bitcoin saw was when it was at $19,665.58 on December 16th, 2017.
Of course, there have been other moments when Bitcoin exploded in price, but these are some of the times that people often fixate on. As I am sure you have noticed, each of these prices are high in their own right, and yet, as time went on they were eclipsed by new rates.
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Is It Too Late To Buy Bitcoin?
Taking a look at the historical data, it appears there that Bitcoin definitely has a chance of breaking its own records, considering how it has been able to every time in the past. However, let’s really examine this concept, and suggest a few other reasons why it might not be too late to buy Bitcoin.
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Contextualizing the Historical Data
Bitcoin has risen significantly over its time. However, every time that people think Bitcoin has peaked for good, it appears to exceed expectations and prove everybody otherwise. Bear in mind that if you were to track down old news articles from December 2017, then you would find a huge amount of content heavily insinuating that Bitcoin reaching $19,000 must be the highest it can get to. And of course, that was far from the truth.
Historical data proves only one thing: Bitcoin is a strong asset and that we probably won’t know when it has reached its ceiling. It is clearly able to outperform practically every other asset (digital, physical, or otherwise). While it’s possible that one day Bitcoin will reach an all-time high for the last time, there is not enough reason to assume that this is the case now.
The April Bitcoin Halving
The Bitcoin Halving is a significant event in the currency’s lifecycle where mining rewards are slashed in half, so that the supply of new Bitcoins entering the market is reduced. It occurs roughly every four years, or exactly after 210,000 blocks are mined. It is designed to lead to more scarcity in the market.
Typically, when Bitcoin halvings occur, the price of the asset skyrockets. However, the 2024 halving was a little different. Bitcoin had reached an all-time high just a little before the halving actually occurred, which seems to have prevented the price from jumping afterward. In the past, the halving would trigger a rise, but this time it seems people anticipated the rise and so they led to it happening prematurely.
This is not a bad (or a good) thing, but rather just the nature of market dynamics in this situation. What it does indicate, however, is that the industry is clued up on how Bitcoin tends to act, and so they are getting better at predicting it. The upshot here is that, if you are looking to buy Bitcoin, then you can always do so a little before the next halving, meaning it is not too late yet, due to halvings occurring every four years (give or take).
The Bitcoin ETF
The approval of a Bitcoin ETF has been a historic moment in the industry. Various crypto companies have been pushing for a US-based ETF for a long time, with the hopes that it would help make BTC more accessible to the traditional trading world.
It might sound strange to anybody who is deeply involved in the crypto scene, but there are tons of traders out there who have never touched a crypto exchange, and who are deeply knowledgeable about stocks, commodities, foreign exchange, and other markets, but who have no clue about how to access Bitcoin. The point of the ETF was to make BTC easier for these people to engage with. In 2024, the first Bitcoin ETF was approved, which has no doubt brought more liquidity to the space. It is hard to say whether this has been priced in yet, but that might actually be a good thing, as it suggests that this increase in user base could be a positive indicator for people who want to start buying now.
Fear and Greed Index
The Fear and Greed Index is a unique metric used by traders to see what market sentiment is like. Instead of measuring the price of an asset, it tries to measure the opinions and actions of people involved in the space. Unlike a lot of technical analysis tools, the Fear and Greed Index leans more into sociology than it does into economics (although there is definitely a major overlap).
A popular way of interpreting the index is to do the opposite of what it suggests. Warren Buffet once famously said “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful”. However, there are other ways of viewing the index as well. For instance, you may choose to abstain from any market activity whenever the index is strongly at one end or the other, and prefer to trade when it is somewhere more in the middle– especially if you are not a fan of sharp rises or falls due to stress.
The most popular Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is found at Alternative.me. Taking a look at it right now, it points to Bitcoin being in a state of relative greed (74/100). Plus, it has been in a state of greed for the last month, and over the span of a year it has been floating near the middle, slowly trending upwards from fear. This could be interpreted as a positive sign that traders are cautiously optimistic, meaning there is a lack of pandemonium, but an overall good impression of what the future could look like.
How Big Could Adoption Get?
There is no easy way of telling how big Bitcoin adoption could get, but what can be said is that many people think it has not maxed out in its global presence. We could talk exclusively about price, but this only gives one perspective. There are other factors that signify Bitcoin’s level of adoption.
Perhaps its shining example of adoption is that El Salvador elevated it to the status of being legal tender. You could almost call this a “Holy Grail” moment, as it indicated that a country had viewed it favorably enough to make it a major part of its nation. The news sadly did not translate into a huge financial impact on the market, but it is a sign that nobody ever really knows how large adoption can get.
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Another major factor was the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, as this was a win for crypto companies who wanted more traditional users. It was a sign that the SEC had finally relaxed its stance on Bitcoin, suggesting they understood it better and were more open to having it become a big part of the US economic world.
On a more nuanced level, one way of measuring adoption is to see how corporations are treating Bitcoin. Blackrock and Goldman Sachs present two interesting examples on the matter. While they both maintain a public position that they are either against Bitcoin or dismissive of it, they also engage with it on an economic level. Goldman Sachs have launched their own trading desk dedicated to BTC, and Blackrock released their own Bitcoin ETF. In this sense, we do not know how many other corporations will change their tune on the asset and act in a similar way in the future.
Why is There So Much Interest in Cryptocurrency Now?
Interest in Bitcoin and the wider crypto market rises and falls all the time. However, it is fair to say that in recent months, there has been much more intrigue. This is, in part, due to the Bitcoin Halving and the approval of Bitcoin ETFs.
Alongside this, there are other factors, such as other assets getting more sophisticated. Ethereum, for instance, is always getting updated and refined, and its rivals (such as Cardano and Solana) are constantly releasing new features or trying to strengthen their security and efficiency. Overall, the industry has been working hard for years to get more robust and impressive, and so the second that the price of BTC started to rise, these updates helped attract further attention.
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Get The Best Return While You Hold Bitcoin With Ledn
If you decide to make the plunge and buy Bitcoin, then consider the possibility of holding it in a savings account. For long-term holders, a savings or Growth account is a fantastic way of earning a passive income. For this reason, people turn to Ledn’s Growth Accounts, as you can currently earn up to 2.5% APY on your BTC. You can even open Growth accounts for Ethereum, USDC, and USDT, if you decide to try out other cryptocurrencies.
Growth Accounts are a great way of putting your long positions to good use, especially if you’re not planning to touch them for some time. They help diversify your portfolio with relatively minimal effort.
Conclusion
It is hard to give a definitive answer about whether it is too late to hold Bitcoin, but the historical data and the positive news the asset has received in recent years suggest that now could still be a good time to get involved. Bitcoin may have reached an all-time high relatively recently, but that does not mean it will not again, and its unpredictability suggests that there could be a chance of making gains by getting involved right now.
Plus, if you hold Bitcoin, then you can earn passive income using Ledn’s Growth Accounts, offering a maximum of 2.5% APY on your holdings. This can yield fantastic results over the long-run, helping to strengthen your position in a hands-off way.
Disclaimer
This article is sponsored by 21 Technologies Inc. and/or its subsidiaries (“Ledn”) and is for general information, discussion, or educational purposes only and is not to be construed or relied upon as constituting legal, financial, investment, accounting, tax, estate-planning, or other professional advice or recommendation. Please read Ledn’s full Risk Disclosure Statement and Disclaimers.