Bitcoin Forum

what would happen if most of the bitcoin were owned by a single organization? for states that print their own fiat money, financing to buy "all" bitcoin would be possible.

the state would presumably risk hyperinflation due to the enormous increase of money and bring the bitcoin rate to astronomical values.

but then, when the state is in possession of "all" bitcoin, it can make the circulation of bitcoin quasi succumb. bitcoin dead, population impoverished, mission accomplished.

What if people won't sell it to them?   Who is going to be dumb enough to take a hyper-inflating currency in exchange? 

Well i dont think that states could afford all of bitcoins in the world and i dont think they could have them all because mostly of the people having bitcoins saves it for future purposes.

What the OP is asking about is like a takeover bid.

Market cap is now 65 billion (American, 65.000.000.000), it is not that difficult for different important states to buy. However, it is an important amount and the problem is that if they tried to start buying, price would go up. It is not like the takeover bid where you agree on a price beforehand. They would need to ask the market for bitcoins for the current price at the time they are buying. So, if they started buying now, they could buy some for 3.900$ but then they would have to buy more expensive bitcoins because the price would be fueled by that high demand.

Anyway, I think it is very unlikely and many people wouldn’t sell.

it's crazy, and it's impossible. how one organization or one country buys all the existing bitcoins. you are too naive to think. That will never happen.

It's possible but it will be quitr difficult for them to yrace where are the owners of most number of bitcoin because we all know that bitcoin was spread in different people and different country the ownership of it is unknown to any people in this world. That's the best thing and a sort of control for bitcoin states cannot just buy all and take away from market

Not gonna happen.  You think any politician or state agency is going to be willing or able to justify buying crypto for no reason?   Hell no they're not.  Especially something as volatile and potentially money-losing as bitcoin.  And they would have no reason for trying to corner the market--or buy any at all.

As to what would happen,  bitcoin would quickly lose its popularity and would become a centralized, government shitcoin.  And then we'd move on to the next best coin.  Probably eth or litecoin or some such.

Bitcoin is not yet in the eye of governments. A few of them have put ban to using Bitcoin to their citizens, no matter this , such thing can be easily bypassed by anyone using bitcoin. Many of bitcoin holders will not sell their bitcoins that they are holding so what you are asking is practically impossible for any agency or government to do, luckily for us.

Why would they do that when it's much cheaper to issue own coin which they can control and make it official mean of payment? In the world of big money there is no sentimental mood, only pragmatic planning.

It would push the price of bitcoin to the point where they would fail to buy them all. As long as there is even one bit out there, it can be subdivided. It would just change the unit price of a bitcoin, and people would transact fractions of bits.

Of course they can, everyone can buy bitcoin.
However keep in mind that if they attempt to buy *all* bitcoin, the price will arise and eventually it will become unaffordable.
On top of that, if government buys all bitcoin and owns it, it would be pointless because no one else would have.

Instead, a better idea would be to launch their own cryptocurrency and compete with bitcoin.

Such a huge emission will probably hurt even the US dollar. Also they won't be able to buy it at one time so it will cause a huge BTC pump (which will alsso increase the amount of fiat needed to buy it). Some people simply won't trade their bitcoins and some bitcoin are already out of use because they are lost.
It is hard to get most of th bitcoin simply because not all of them are on tradable atm.

Aside from this scenario being impossible, it is interesting to note that a whole bunch of countries are simply too poor to buy all of BTC, let alone all of crypto. I'm not an economical expert and don't know if a market cap of a country is some sort of 'thermometer' of wealth. I took some numbers from indexmundi and coinmarketcap:

Market cap Russia (2015): $393.238.000.000
Current market cap crypto: $136.300.000.000
Current market cap Bitcoin: $65.100.000.000
Market cap Argentina (2015): $56.134.630.000
Market cap Serbia (2011): $4.055.580.000
Market cap Namibia (2011): $1,152,430

it seems that it will not happen, because the bitcoin price is so high it will require huge capital to buy all the Bitcoin in the world, and if it could be an organization controlling Bitcoin completely then there will be no Bitcoin so no exchange between bitcoin users and the organization will experience inflation in the country.

They could try - its somewhere between ultra-expensive and impossible.

Your comparing apples to peanuts.

The "market cap" of a country, or rather of "listed domestic companies" doesn't mean anything regarding a nation state's liquidity or ability to purchase something, be it bitcoin or anything else.

"market cap" of bitcoin, otoh, is just shorthand for "current average spot price multiplied by total coins in existence", which btw is a wildly inaccurate estimate of anything.

perhaps a slightly better indicator to use is M2 Money Supply indicators, which for russia is around 40 trillion rubles. that would be about 0.7 trillion dollars. Even this means very little though, as a country bent on doing something like that could fund purchases in several ways, ranging from coercion to using gold reserves.

In general, BTC is still worth peanuts when compared to most countries or financial powerhouses, but a full scale acquisition would be near impossible because of the very effects it would cause.

I really doubt that a nation will go all in with crypto. As you have said, they will risk hyperinflation and it brings more negative to their country. Maybe they could have civil war because of the stupidity of their government leaders. In theory, it can happen, but I doubt any state or country will do that.

How is that even possible? States cannot buy the whole bitcoin. I for one already set my highest selling value of bitcoin to $100 million on bittrex ;D ... With the market cap of bitcoin, there is no way any country can buy all bitcoin. Moreover, it will be useless to them eventually as it will be time to start building another coin or another forked coin.

Well yes the bitcoin 's current capital is 65 billion in terms of usd since the US has earned billions and billions of dollars everyday, they can easily bought entire bitcoin network withour having any problems but i think it is impossible for a country to buy bitcoin.

The whole supply of bitcoin mined until now(about 16 mil.) worth over $60bilions. That is an enormous amount of money.Facebook, ebay or amazon worth about the same. I dont think a single company can hold more than 50% of all the existing bitcoins because they have no reason to do that

It is very important to think, my friend.
You seem to be underestimate what humans are capable of.
Forum members need to continue discussing stuff like this, you never can tell, some members somewhere could be patching things up for us to make things difficult for the wannabe tyrants.

surely will be a monopoly, but ownership of 51℅ bitcoin in one organization is quite difficult at this time.

How would anyone know when the government buyout occurred? A government wouldn't need to announce it to the world, anymore than they need to announce any of their financial hedges.

Anyway, of course no government can buy all the bitcoins. To do that, all holders need to sell to them. Many holders won't sell for any reason at all, and more yet wouldn't sell to the US government. Some bitcoiners have principles! :P

If ever an organization/state buy all bitcoin, there will be what we call "MONOPOLY" where only one person/group who runs a product. In case bitcoin monopoly happens, there will be (I think) a huge drop in the value of bitcoin. It does not make sense for an organization to buy ALL or MOST bitcoins and keep it. Once a cryptocurrency stops rotating in the market, its value will flactuate.

If the states buy all the coin then the value will become zero, it will just the same with the country creating new coin and when the country monopoly all the coins people will find another coin to used because I believe the users used Bitcoin because it is decentralized and anonymous

I think that will never happen because a states won't waste their money just to buy a bitcoin that has no steady price. How could they buy all  the bitcoin in the world if the people won't sell their butcoins.

how can we buy all the bitcoins? bitcoin is spread almost all over the world, with different people, it is possible that not everyone will want to sell its bitcoin, so in my opinion bitcoin will not be able to be purchased as a whole by an organization

            Some states in the united states are much intrested to introduce bitcoin to their states with a friendly regulation mean time some other states are thinking  to by all bit coins from the market.It is a tedious
task to by all bitcoins from the market.In the beginning ,they may get some to the normal market price but later the price will shoot up.

the one thing that in my head is they can control bitcoin and the price although they can not control blockchain. they can make the price is up and down by themselves and we can not do anything except following they want. but I don't think that this come to easy for them to buy the whole of bitcoin amount because it will need huge money and we talk about big money.

First of all to buy all bitcoin the government needs to print a ton of money and that would cause inflation. So yeah, if they wanted to do this they'll do it at the risk of outraging every single person in their country, and is basically an impossible plan.

Even if they do decide to do this(foolishly) they are just pumping the price up.

There are so many long term bitcoin holders that won't sell their coin because they know that the price is artificially high and fiat by that point would be quite useless. So the government can probably only buy a tiny portion of all coins in circulation anyways.

They could kill Bitcoins this way, but there are many people involved on this market and I don't think they will sell all their Bitcoins for now. There are smart people holding too many coins and they know if they do this (sell their Bitcoins to an organization) they will kill the currency. There are enough Bitcoins in circulation on different hands, for now we are safe.

But I think some governments are already thinking on this possibility, if Bitcoin becomes a big problem for them, to kill it this way is a solution.

Even if they can, I don't think the states will buy it all. And in the first place, will everybody sell their coins? Let's say they did. So, what are their plans and what happens next? It's not like they're gonna buy every coin there is then sell it again after some time. It's not like people will buy it again from them unless they sell it at half the purchasing price.

buy all bitcoin? NO, it's impossible because:
- not necessarily all bitcoin owners want to sell their bitcoin
- maybe some bitcoin will not be sold (because the owners lost access to their wallets)

I mean I guess it's possible to try and get a very dominating amount of Bitcoin but it would be impossible to get all the ones in circulation right now, some private keys have been lost and hacked and what not and as crazy at it might sound some people would refuse to sell unless it was for $1,000,000 per BTC or something.

No this will not happen. There were a lot of private holders for bitcoin. So it means that they can't buy ALL bitcoins in the whole world. Well they have all the money they need in order to buy all bitcoins.

If they wish to do that then they must already did that before because why in the world will they do that now when the price of one bitcoin is more valuable compare to the recent years. and if they really want to do it and their only reasons is to kill Bitcoin then it is up to them now but if their only intention is to make a profit out of it then let them be as money makes you money in the world of investments.

We can make different kind of consipirancy anytime we want and that is great because some people will get an idea out of it and this organization that is in power will think first before doing so, but at the end of the day we can't do anything when it comes.

This is impossible as far as I know there's no way to trace the ownership of bitcoins circulating in the market so how come they can buy it unless all of those people will try to sell them. Bitcoin is all over the world now not in one country and the privacy of owners are tight enough that even in transacting none of their personal information were disclose to anybody. This is one of the main reason why some government does not want the adaptation of bitcoin it's very private and clueless.

Thereotically, this is possible.

The government could potentially just issue a huge load of fiat currency and buy into bitcoin. But then not only is this driving bitcoin prices up substantially which is good for holders of bitcoin, it will also mean that the monetary base becomes heavily inflated.

There is only so much bitcoin that people are willing to sell. The government can only buay bitcoin off these people and it's a finite amount and probably won't affect bitcoin much even if they did buy it.

I think that won't be happen anyway. Because if they can, I guess from the very start they did it already even China if they can buy all bitcoin supply they're the one who will first to do it, but its not what happen which means they're capable or able to do it.

Yes it could happen and not just a country can buy it, even a very rich person can buy it and control the price.
I don't think that someone or a country will destroy the bitcoin price, but it could happen. So always keep your wealth in fiat money, not digital, and leave some of it as bitcoin assets.

is a state or one person one half of the bitcoin or 3/4 of the bitcoin it will loose it popularity and no one play in the market as it will circulating and revolving in the exchange. Users will lose their appetite in the situations. Remember If one will just hold all the coins it will increase it price but suddenly it will crash and all will sell their coin.

If that would happen, they will surely benefit on that set up , on that ownership. but it might be hard for us to engange more in trading of bitcoin since it might increase the buying price of each coin which will not be beneficial for us. They will have the power to fluctuate the price of the bitcoin since the ownership was on their part. This was just my opinion.

Recently I heard that in Russia, the Central Bank is going to transfer part of the money to the cryptocurrency. This can affect the price of bitcoins. This is worth thinking about.

Buying all those bitcoins can be but they need huge amount of money too, but the advantage. the owner can manage and control the bitcoin price as desired

They can't because I don't sell.

They can buy bitcoin but not all of the bitcoins because we know that there is a millions of holding of satoshi nakamoto who creates bitcoin and for sure they will not be able to buy all the bitcoins because of that and there is still a lot of bitcoins to mine so it is very impossible for the states to buy bitcoins (all).

In my opinion it cannot happen that one state get all bitcoin because bitcoin is spread out in the whole world of crypto community. In one side bitcoin is unpredictable and no one organization can hold it.

It's impossible, I think so, states already have debts in unreal cosmic limits, they of course are interested in bitcoins and cryptocurrencies, but not to the point of buying all bitcoins, buying all bitcoins requires a sharp reason.

it is not possible that, all bitcoin buy one government or one man. because bitcoin have many peoples they do not sell. they do store for future. so i think this not at all.

not possible, because the state alone forbids the use of bitcoins and it is impossible to buy crypto for no reason. if it happens then bitcoin will lose its popularity and we will hard to get btc, it could be its price will be much more down.

Sure the states can buy all the bitcoin but there wont be any usage, if they print out fiat to buy bitcoin then their fiat value will go down significantly because buying all bitcoin is a huge amount of money, and then when bitcoin is monopolise by a single state without any circulation the value will become zero and  people will just find other coin to invest, so there is no point to monopoly bitcoin

it is unlikely that the state can buy all the bitcoins because the people keep them for a particular purpose just for investment and it is not possible to sell them to the country unless the country can afford it at such a high price

To be honest, i don't beleive tha a single organization or state can acquired all bitcoin in the world, because not all people are willing to sell their bitcoins,
But let assumed that bitcoin really is acquired by only one state, they must have a lot of money, and has the highest currency in the world. If that happen bitcoin will be stable like dollar or any other currency not unless they have transaction outside their state.

Yes exactly any state don't need to buy bitcoin for the purpose to dump it. State is always powerful and they don't need to dump bitcoin but if they don't like in their country they will simply ban it. We already have seen Russia and China who has banned bitcoin. If not Russia, China has the power to buy a great amount of bitcoin but Chinese government didn't do it but banned bitcoin and closed all the crypto exchanges in the country.

A good question indeed and honestly this is the first time I heard about this kind of possibility.
But unfortunately I can’t make a technical answer for it because of many factors regarding economics that I couldn’t understand but in personal opinion I think it will happen but I hope it won’t. Let see what future brings and will happen and if this be a reality we will know if the government will do that desperate moves themselves or the law will allow them especially they’re using a public funds and those must be approved by the people or the citizens they serve.

I do not know, currently the bitcoin price is too high, and the amount of bitcoin has now been overwhelming. maybe, after buying all the bitcoin, the country will go bankrupt. I am sure, it is very difficult to buy all the bitcoin, even for a country.

Just like with other assets, you simply can't buy all Bitcoins because only a fraction of existing Bitcoins are for sale. People are often being misguided by marketcaps, thinking that they are equal to the total worth of all coins, but reality is a bit more complex. What you really can do is buy all Bitcoins that are on order books on exchanges - that's some dozens-hundreds of thousands coins. As you will be buying, the price will be quickly increasing, so instead of current $5,700 * X, the price will be much higher. After that people will put more Bitcoins for sale at a new high price, so it would be impossible to buy all Bitcoins because the price will be only increasing. And if government will try to print more money to buy more coins, they would just kill the fiat currency and their own economy. This scenario is so unrealistic that there's no chance we'd ever see it happening.

How can states can buy all the bitcoin ? The first problem is that people and investors are not going to sell their bitcoin because what if after they sell it with the current price, after a few days bitcoin price goes right up with more profit ? The second is that i guess states don't have enough money to buy all the current bitcoin. If they want to, they need more money in their government bank follow by that they will increase tax fee and the economy will go nuts. And what if they success in collecting all the bitcoin, they sell it with a higher price and the no one's gonna buy it ? They will broke. So it's very risky for states to buy and collect all the bitcoin.

I think the current huge value may become less or no value at all because the circulation will be limited within in their area only in which all holders will force to sell their bitcoin to that state. If this will happen they can now replace their fiat to bitcoin as their legal tender but the value will be not as expensive as today but it will now depend of their economy status thru foreign exchange rate.

then i think they can control the price of bitcoin and they can easily to playing with the price. but i think the states can not risk all of their money to buy bitcoin because they still need that money to make sure the economy of the states can work properly. the most changes that we can see the price will be changing over and over and i think the price might not reach the high price because the states controlling the price to not increase to high but follow what they want.

Yeah,you are absolutely correct,the value will decrease if it all bitcoin owned by single country and some other crypto will take place of bitcoin.The bitcoin price is high is mainly due to its worldwide usage,if it was limited then price will also limited.

It is a very interesting assumption. In my opinion, it is very unlikely that an organization/state buys all of the bitcoins. If no other parties are using bitcoin, bitcoin will lose value and even die. So why would an organization spend lots of money to buy all coins, kill bitcoin and lose money.

Yes they can buy bitcoin with their money. But the problem is where can the get bitcoin? I think less people will just sell their bitcoin to state. They mostly sell it only a little part of bitcoin and only to trader. Most of people just keep their bitcoin for future.

Yes!they can afford to buy all bitcoin if there state is wealthy,they can do what ever they want to reclaim all bitcoins for the common good of there state.the question is,what is there purpose of buying all bitcoins?is there any hidden agenda why should they buy all the bitcoins?

They can't buy all bitcoins now because it is not all mined yet even they have enough funds to buy all there is no assurance that the bitcoin price will still the same this day this coming months or years, time will come they can't afford to buy all of this coins because the price changes constantly every minutes that a large percentage can go up and down and remember that bitcoin is still $1000 and now have a dominant price of $3000 plus so they can't do that it is just a large risk and gamble for their part.

Maybe it possible that one state buy all bitcoin but when it happen there are possibility that bitcoin have a massive fluctuation of value because it's concentrated in one stock. In reality bitcoin user and investors are not allowing one state to buy bitcoin it is because bitcoin have an important role in virtual world and digital transaction even in Forex exchange.

Yes if they want to buy they can do it. With hug money they buy anything. But with that, its time of dying bitcoin since they manage the price.
But clever investor will not give such thing happen. Invest will not let state buy all bitcoin.

I do not know, currently the bitcoin price is too high, and the amount of bitcoin has now been overwhelming. maybe, after buying all the bitcoin, the country will go bankrupt. I am sure, it is very difficult to buy all the bitcoin, even for a country.

i think if a single state or country will be the sole owner of bitcoin, it is so impossible right now, no country is dumb enough to buy all bitcoins in the world, that would be huge amount of money, even all their resources and bonds and money are put together, no country can handle bitcoin, not unless they invested long ago and have a huge money invested in bitcoin, maybe in the distant future it will be possible, but now i doubt.

In my own opinion, i think the states cant afford to buy all the bitcoin in the whole world. It will need a high capital.

Why would the government buy bitcoins. In every government there are representatives of the classical school of Economics. In their understanding bitcoin is a classic pyramid. Who wants to volunteer to risk a penalty? It seems to me that the government will be more acceptable to declare war on bitcoin and destroy it.

I don't think that the states can buy all the bitcoin. Because some bitcoins are already owned by people. And it would be hard for the government or different agencies to buy them all. Also, people are preserving it because its value is getting bigger so it will be beneficial in the future.

I think no state or country would be interested to buy ALL the bitcoins in the world as well as not all bitcoin holders would be willing to sell their bitcoins. If one organization owns all the btc it means they have sole control over it and can affect the value of bitcoin, the price would probably go down. Also a country or state can't put at stake their funds just to buy all the btc they need their fund to run their economy and its not 'the thing' for bitcoin due to its fluctuating value.

If that would happen, they will surely benefit on that set up , on that ownership. but it might be hard for us to engange more in trading of bitcoin since it might increase the buying price of each coin which will not be beneficial for us. They will have the power to fluctuate the price of the bitcoin since the ownership was on their part. This was just my opinion.