RE: How much institutional demand is there really for crypto?
So...they don't think there's a demand because none of their clients went to them to buy crypto...rather than going to someone that specializes in it? Somehow I don't think that means jack shit.
We're still in early days by the numbers. There will be jumps that make last year look small...and they won't be "pump and dumps", they'll get legitimate rises and then falls due to people taking profit. This isn't proof of some "correction" because the coin is overvalued, but rather the natural action of the market.
Currently the amount of money and users is tiny. We will continue to grow. That doesn't necessarily mean that crypto in it's current form will replace money...but it is useful...and it is undervalued considering the number of users and amount of money in it, at the same time it is literally saving nations as some users put their money in it and use it daily, because it is a better choice in many cases than fiat or traditional monetary services, which are often a lot harder and more expensive to use, ironically, considering how difficult it is for users to get into crypto.
Exactly. I think bitcoin is incredibly useful even in its current form. No it is not a good source of money. However, it can be a good diversification tool in a well diversified portfolio because it isn't correlated with anything else. Plus it is deflationary meaning you don't have to worry about it being inflated away. Then you also have its use case for sending international payments, it is significantly faster and cheaper than legacy systems. Then top all that off with the fact that it isn't controlled by any single entity and I think it has some incredibly valuable use cases right now even in its current form, and that is even if it never catches on as a popular currency. If that happens, look out.
Bitcoin seems slow and expensive...until you try to get paid for a job online with traditional systems. Wire Transfer? $50-100+, and it will take days to possibly a week or more, and they'll still charge you if it doesn't go through for whatever reason, including a discrepancy in their own system that would be solved by any idiot with even 10% of a brain. Paypal? Pretty hefty fees, and again takes days. Other programs? May take weeks or even months, and they may never go through.
Yes, I have actually had to wait months before to be paid for a job.
Fuck legacy payments. It's pathetic that our monetary system is so pathetic.
I want to think that there has to be systems out there that are at least as good as crypto for sending payments...but often they're small and not used by very many people. For example, my bank has some kind of system that's pretty fast, but who uses my exact bank? Not anyone random I wanna send money to.
Yes and depending on your bank, sometimes you have to write a letter or give a phone call as to why you want to move a decent sized chunk of change. It is my money, why should I have to write you a letter and tell you what I want to do with my money?!
I've heard about that when people are buying houses and things. It's really fucking stupid and none of their business. Everyone talks about guilty until proven innocent...but that's not really the way of the world. Everyone assumes everyone has the most nefarious motives.
It gets pretty absurd when you are moving your money from one account to another account at the same bank... needless to say I will be closing both accounts shortly.
That makes it easy when FIAT crashes. :P And when the banks won't give out any money anymore, because they're leveraged so highly that if even a small percentage of people take their money out, we're all screwed.
Of course, that happening isn't highly likely, since banks are convenient. Even when you put your money into crypto, it's just transferring it from one bank to another.