Bitcoin’s true acceptance level is significantly lower than many people believe, which means its upside potential is much greater.
President Joe Biden of the United States signed an executive order on digital assets on March 9. A senior administration official responded to the order by claiming that 40 million Americans – or 16% of the overall population – had invested in or are trading cryptocurrency.
The official’s statement reflected the findings of a Grayscale Research research from December 2021, which indicated that 26% of Americans possess bitcoin (BTC). (Editor’s note: Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk’s parent firm, Digital Currency Group.) According to a poll conducted by bitcoin investment firm NYDIG in 2021, 46 million Americans, or about a fifth of all individuals in the United States, possess bitcoin.
I’ve heard people cite data like these in meetings with other crypto professionals to claim that “adoption” of bitcoin in the United States is currently above 15%. However, in my opinion, this falls well short of the target – probably by an order of magnitude.
What bitcoin adoption really means
That’s because, in my perspective, buying $10 worth of bitcoin isn’t genuinely adoption. Adoption of bitcoin entails acknowledging bitcoin’s status as the world’s best hard-money asset – a monetary asset with a finite quantity. It entails seeing bitcoin as the finest risk-adjusted and liquid investment option available today. It implies accepting that bitcoin has the potential to become the world’s most valuable mechanism for storing and transferring value. Read also; What Impact has Bitcoin had on America’s Arms Industry?
“Adoption” doesn’t mean “buying a little bit” because of these kinds of facts. It means putting a big chunk of one’s wealth into bitcoin. The Biden administration says that adoption is when 16 percent or more of the population owns at least some cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin. However, this definition of adoption is different. Instead, it’s the group of people who have put at least 20% of their net worth into bitcoin.
Using this standard to measure adoption is hard. Because of this, the number of people in the U.S. who use bitcoin would be smaller—maybe just 2 percent. But if bitcoin reaches its full potential as the best hard money asset in the world, it could end up being used by more than 50 percent of people in the long run.
Degrees of Adoption
Also, because bitcoin is a form of money, the degree to which it is used can change over time for each person who uses it. A person who doesn’t know much about bitcoin can start by buying $10 worth and leaving it on an exchange. As she learns more about it, she can move more of her savings into bitcoin over time.
In this way, it’s different from how most technologies are adopted, where it’s either you have a car (or maybe two) or you don’t, or you have a mobile computer (or two) or you don’t. On the other hand, when it comes to individuals, there is a sliding scale between dabbling and putting a big chunk of one’s net worth into bitcoin.
What this Means for Advisors
For financial advisors, this has significant ramifications. While it may seem absurd to invest 20% of your net worth in bitcoin, I can assure you that it is already occurring. Several financial advisors who are developing their companies around bitcoin have approached me in the last year. Their clients aren’t devoting 1% of their portfolios to bitcoin; instead, they are committing 10% to 30%. Bitcoin is the cornerstone of these advisors’ practise, not equities, bonds, or real estate.
This suggests that bitcoin is already progressing beyond being the new Amazon for some financial gurus (AMZN). It’s now on its way to becoming the next gold or maybe the next S&P 500 – and possibly the most valuable asset class in a client’s portfolio. Nonetheless, the percentage of present and potential financial counselling clients who approach it in this manner is still small enough that it has the potential to rise considerably this decade. Read more; ApeCoin Price Prediction 2022 – 2025: How Far Will It Rise
I expect financial advisors who are on the right side of this trend to enjoy large dividends as the percentage of the American and worldwide populace who has fully adopted bitcoin climbs. Although it isn’t required to develop a practise around bitcoin just yet, financial advisors would be prudent to look for methods to profit from the bitcoin adoption trend. It’s only the beginning.
