Bitcoin price sets a record, passing $19,783, with more investors seemingly in it for the long haul, unlike 2017's boom driven by Asian investors new to crypto

New York Times 2020-12-01 Nathaniel Popper

Context & Ripple Effects

Bitcoin crossing $19,783 caps a two-week run: on November 18 the price broke $17K for the first time since January 2018 and market cap hit an all-time high of $329.91B, topping December 2017's peak before the price itself did. What distinguishes this record from the last one is who is buying — the coverage points to holders treating bitcoin as a multi-year position rather than the 2017 pattern of Asian retail newcomers trading the spike.

First-order effects

The composition of demand changes immediately: if coins are moving to long-term holders, less supply trades at the new record, so the $19,783 level rests on fewer sellers than the 2017 peak did.

Second-order effects

Sustained holding pulls in follow-on capital from buyers who treat flows as signal — a pattern later visible when CoinShares recorded a record $2.7B flowing into crypto assets in a single week as bitcoin topped $72K in March 2024.

Third-order effects

A holder-dominated base compounds geographically rather than cyclically: by mid-2021, Chainalysis counted Indian crypto investments growing from roughly $200M to $40B in a year despite regulatory uncertainty, and bitcoin's 2021 run past $67,000 came with over 75% of supply in illiquid addresses — evidence the long-term-holding structure first flagged at this record persisted through the cycle.

The trend: Bitcoin is shifting from episodic, newcomer-driven speculation spikes toward markets anchored by long-term holders whose locked-up supply amplifies each successive record.

Discussion

@nathanielpopper Nathaniel Popper on x
This time around, American Bitcoin buyers appear to be the driving force, rather than the Asian speculators who drove things during the last two peaks. Chainalysis has also found that many more buyers are now moving their BTC off exchanges to storage rather than trading more.
@nathanielpopper Nathaniel Popper on x
Bitcoin hits a new all-time high with a very different feeling to it than the last time around. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@michael_saylor Michael Saylor on x
#Bitcoin is the world's best treasury reserve asset & the emerging dominant monetary network. It is the solution to the store of value problem faced by every individual, corporation, & government on earth. As this news gets out, the world is going to change for the better. https:…
@niccary Nicolas Cary on x
Guess whose back. Back again. #bitcoin is back. Tell your friends 🥳 https://www.nytimes.com/...
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
I know all the smart people have written for years about asset prices being divorced from the “real” economy. But, man, thinking about the Dow record, a Bitcoin record and climbing housing prices when a pandemic is surging...it's making me sad. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@crypt0snews Omar Bham on x
The New York Times finally wrote an article on Bitcoim's highs. ..And we're just getting started. “Bitcoin Climbs to Record High” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@iansherr Ian Sherr on x
Waiting to read the @coinbase blog post attacking the NYT for its narrative around bitcoin prices too. https://twitter.com/...
@timbray Tim Bray on x
[*screams*] A big piece on BTC price in the Times by @nathanielpopper doesn't even mention the Tether stench. I keep telling myself I'm not crazy but maybe I am? https://twitter.com/...
@benjaminwittes Benjamin Wittes on x
Of course it's a bubble. https://twitter.com/...
@nytimes @nytimes on x
The price of a single Bitcoin rose to a record of above $19,783, after falling below $4,000 in March. More investors are buying it for the long term. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@nytimestech @nytimestech on x
Bitcoin is back. Again. https://www.nytimes.com/...

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