What limits the market cap of bitcoin?

[astralliam]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

 

[Qiuyue201]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

 

Theres no limit to the marketcap of bitcoin and you must understand about that will never have a limit. Imagine all of the people around the world are using bitcoin. There is not limit to the price of bitcoin as the stable currency like usdt. bitcoin is possible to growth 10k dollar or even 100k dollar for each bitcoin.

[VitKoyn]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

To compute the Market Capitalization you have to multiply the Bitcoin supply and the current market price of bitcoin, so there's no limit.
Supply and Demands mostly affects the price of bitcoin but there are lots of things that can affect it like News, Government Policy, Competition.

[javadsalehi]

Since the price is determined by supply and demend, there is no limit. High demand and low supply cause the price to increase. buyers and sellers determine price as much as they want.

[Beerwizzard]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

In case of bitcoin with its limited suply only demand limits the market cap. The current market cap is big but is is still not as high as it can be. just imagine how many new users will come when BTC would be widely used all over the world. That will significantly incease the demand and increase the bitcoin price and total market cap.

[BrewMaster]

nothing can limit market capitalization of anything ever!
market capitalization is calculated by multiplying price by shares. it is shares because market capitalization is something that we calculate for companies not currencies! in a sense, using Market Cap for bitcoin is like wanting to tell your height in volume instead of length (say i am 100 Liter tall instead of 1.6 meter)

and because of that as long as either price or number of shares (or number of available coins) can change (which supply can not change for bitcoin) the market cap can too.

MC (rising) = Supply (fixed) * price (rising)

[astralliam]

i appreciate there is technically no upper limit if there is no limit on the bitcoin price, but in order to buy bitcoins people need to have a liquid asset. What is the available pool of money they could use if the world when really bitcoin crazy.

I guess people could sell gold and other investments driving down the price and transfering the 'stored value' to bitcoin. Individuals who don't have any free cash to invest aren't gonna by bit coins.

There must be some way to assess the size of the available pool of money that could realistically could potentially go into bitcoin?

Currently bitcoin is worth way less than Google so presumably BTC could still go a lot higher. I'm wondering if there are any realistic economic limits to which bitcoins market cap could grow before it would have to be having a bit effect on the rest of the economy?

[astralliam]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

In case of bitcoin with its limited suply only demand limits the market cap. The current market cap is big but is is still not as high as it can be. just imagine how many new users will come when BTC would be widely used all over the world. That will significantly incease the demand and increase the bitcoin price and total market cap.

Yes, long term. But bitcoin has risen sharply. If it's real value has not risen as much then it's likely a bubble caused by people investing because they want to make money (fiat) and intend to pull it out. Then we could see the price fall sharply, for a time until bitcoin starts demonstrating it's value more.

I'm interest reasoning about the value of bitcoin, and the available pool of money, from the more mainstream 'gambling' investors who are not invested in the economic philosophy. 
 

[Dailyroberts]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

Chinese ban, Chinese manipulation. Dangerous restrictions, these are all preventing bitcoin to reach higher market caps for sure. But technically, there is not mathematical limit on bitcoin's cap.

[player514]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

Chinese ban, Chinese manipulation. Dangerous restrictions, these are all preventing bitcoin to reach higher market caps for sure. But technically, there is not mathematical limit on bitcoin's cap.

I think as with anything, you can have two outcomes. Growth or crash. With the Chinese news, you see a bit of a drop. You can consider this our "crash." Since there is a fair amount of backing as can be seen in OP's example of every grandma and her dog (made me laugh), there is a potential for growth as there is a general interest from those who are trying to hop onto the Bitcoin chain.

[jekjekman]

Everything has a limit though if you may ask me but in what extent then and with that I can't answer you but for a wild guess I think sum up all the money in the world and it is the total market cap of bitcoin, potentially. Just imagine the future of currency is bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a digital world wide currency so it means that every single Fiat money of a single country can invest in it, if that time comes that every establishment in the world really accepts bitcoin as a payment in exchange of their services then I think the value of a single bitcoin will be so high.

[coinsmanager]

We need more users, especially major players in the game.

The fact we know is that there are more millionaries in the world than the number of Bitcoins in existence. Now imagine if at least one-third of these investors decided to buy 1 Bitcoin...

[astralliam]

True. If blockchain can prove scalability then it clearly technically better money and this should happen. In which case no-one should sell, the price will skyrocket... but

If noone sells, the price may go high but no fiat millionaires will get any bitcoins. what happens then? at some point millionaries decided they dont want to exchange everything they own for 1 BTC which could be worthless again tomorrow. price falls. Do the holder decide the game is up and they should sell now? -> price crashes. Or hold and only you BTC in the new paradigm economy?
This territory is full of paradoxes.

[alyssa85]

We need more users, especially major players in the game.

The fact we know is that there are more millionaries in the world than the number of Bitcoins in existence. Now imagine if at least one-third of these investors decided to buy 1 Bitcoin...

Adoption has stalled - the number of transactions per 24 hours has been about 250,000 for over a year. Though segwit has been enabled, people arn't using it, and fees are still a problem.

I honestly think that if bitcoin doesn't resolve it's problems by the end of this year, a flippening will happen and another coin will take the crown.

[Kotone]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

 

Realistically i think what caps the market price of bitcoin is that several factors in the stock i cluding its volatility and that fact that some countries are still wavering on integrating bitcoin to their society means that bitcoin still has not showed its true price yet.

[Yamifoud]

Since the price is determined by supply and demend, there is no limit. High demand and low supply cause the price to increase. buyers and sellers determine price as much as they want.

It matters only the demand in the market because we have a lot of miners, therefore we have enough supply in the market.
But the problem that I observed is that, we have more investors than users. And this could affect the demand of bitcoin because only few numbers are using it in their regular transaction, but if bitcoin could be used in different areas then that could increase it's demand.

[Mahanton]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

 

The cap would be sky is the limit until it reaches the possible maximum when all bitcoins have been mined and do circulate globally but knowing theres still 16m coins in circulation.If demand would really rise up on bitcoin then for sure it shoots up its price its just a simple economics subject.It can surpass those big time companies or any other currencies when it comes to its cap.We are still young and there are still big space for adoption and development.

[Murloc]

It is hard to predict the possible market cap. We have only current cap. But all BTC holders hope that it still can multiply several times.

[GoodLuck2]

It is hard to predict the possible market cap. We have only current cap. But all BTC holders hope that it still can multiply several times.

Now the huge amount of the money is flowing in the bitcoin and more people are investing in bitcoin now. Price of the bitcoin is getting high as the investors are increasing. Bitcoin price and the market cap is unpredictable as you said;  you are right because the price and the market cap of the bitcoin increase with each new entry in bitcoin forum

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?

Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.

US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.

For the bitcoin price to rise  a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?

I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.

 

Theres no limit to the marketcap of bitcoin and you must understand about that will never have a limit. Imagine all of the people around the world are using bitcoin. There is not limit to the price of bitcoin as the stable currency like usdt. bitcoin is possible to growth 10k dollar or even 100k dollar for each bitcoin.

Well the theoretical limit is the amount of wealth everywhere but bitcoin in the world, which is tons of trillions, so yes, Bitcoin is a tiny dot in a sea of potential wealth that can come in in various forms, be precious metals like gold and silver, stocks, bonds, commodities and all kinds of assets. BTC could be worth millions of dollars if people diversified small %'s of each of their holdings on their portfolios into BTC.

This should explain it better than any words (just consider BTC is not 70 billion and not 5, but like you see, it's still nothing, we are early adopters)