Google Trends shows that there’s been a helluva lot of “Bitcoin dead” and “Bitcoin is dead” searches over the past week or so. The data reveals the phrases are easily at the highest levels registered in about four and a half years.
According to Bitcoin.com, the last time the Google Trends data showed a significant spike for the “Bitcoin is dead” search phrase was during the Terra LUNA implosion during the week of May 8-14.
This spike is about 60% higher than that, though, and can be put down to a fun cocktail of factors including the “crypto contagion” (Celsius and 3AC), plus ongoing macro forces including, Wall Street games, the Fed’s inflation-combatting moves, war, recession fears, yada yada.
Google searches for “bitcoin dead” hit all time highs over the weekend. pic.twitter.com/oDXNqGEeIL
— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) June 20, 2022
Bitcoin has apparently died 15 times this year
According to the Bitcoin Obituaries list, the no.1 orange coin has now carked it 455 times in total since inception, and 15 times so far this year.
The list bases the “deaths” on negative mainstream-media articles sporting headlines such as: “All Crypto Should Die in a Fire”; “Blockchain is Like a Venereal Disease”; “Bitcoin is Just a Crappy Tech Stock”… and so on.
The site also provides the following criteria:
• The content itself (not just the headline) must be explicit about the fact that Bitcoin is, or will be, worthless (no “maybe” or “could”).
• The content was produced by a person with a notable following or a site with substantial traffic
In comparison, 2021 saw about 47 Bitcoin obituaries, so perhaps 2022, isn’t trending quite as badly as last year, then, which is surprising.
The year prior to that, though (2020), was a pump-tastic one for crypto in general, and only registered about 14 notable Bitcoin bucket kicks, according to the site.
Michael Saylor’s 10 ways to a better Bitcoin
Michael Saylor, CEO of business intelligence/software/Bitcoin-gobbling company MicroStrategy, has outlined 10 things he believes needs to happen over the next decade in order to make the OG crypto a stronger asset.
The BTC bull was speaking with Bloomberg this week and also discussed his firm’s 10-year strategy and plans to keep on buying Bitcoin.
In light of the recent market downturn, Saylor was asked if regretted buying so much Bitcoin, to which he replied:
“We did a lot of backtesting and I’ve gone back and looked at the numbers. On August 10, 2020 when we announced our $250 million bitcoin buy, since then, Bitcoin is up 72%.
“The bottom line is that the Bitcoin strategy is 10x better than any other alternative,” Saylor concluded. “So, no. I don’t regret it.”
My @BloombergTV discussion with @emilychangtv includes a post-mortem on @MicroStrategy’s #Bitcoin Strategy and a review of the top ten hurdles that the industry must overcome as it crosses the chasm and achieves mainstream adoption. pic.twitter.com/Ujid4m1pxe
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) June 17, 2022
“There’s about 10 things that have to happen over the next decade to make it [Bitcoin] a better asset, and we kind of know what those 10 things are,” said Saylor.
• First on Saylor’s list is the need to address the absence of a “no wash-trading rule”. At the moment, traders are able to harvest loss and gains in ways that can’t happen in highly regulated equities markets.
• The CEO has issues with the 520 unregistered and unregulated crypto exchanges offering 20x leverage, which can lead to unprotected investors getting absolutely rekt .
• He believes, the 19,000 or so cryptos cross-collateralised and associated with Bitcoin hold the no.1 crypto back – by association with “badly managed, unregistered securities”.
• Lack of knowledge about Bitcoin needs to be addressed, according to Saylor. Ignorance and fear of the asset class, as a lack of technical know-how still terrifies many, he said.
• And that stems from sensationalist media coverage declaring the many supposed deaths of Bitcoin (see above), he added.
