Despite the rise and then halving of the price, bitcoin remains a decidedly attractive asset in 2021, as evidenced by the transactions being processed this year.
According to a chart shown by Glassnode, bitcoin transactions in 2021 alone will amount to $15.8 trillion, 71% of the US gross domestic product of $22.24 trillion.
What is unique is that transactions have remained high even when the price of bitcoin has fallen. This shows that these are consistent investors, and not just people who took advantage of the hype. Admittedly, the highest number of transactions per amount transferred not surprisingly came in April, when bitcoin touched $65,000. But despite the retracement, the value of transactions didn’t drop that much.
Institutional investors, from Tesla to Microstrategy, have certainly contributed to this peak in value transferred.
Tesla invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin in February. Microstrategy, on the other hand, continues its ‘buying campaign’, buying bitcoin from time to time. Currently, after its latest purchase, Michael Saylor’s company owns over 105,000 BTC, which at the current price of $31,500 is equivalent to $3.3 billion.
Why bitcoin transactions could grow further
Despite the halving of the price, which is still 2.5 times that of last year, bitcoin continues to maintain high interest in itself.
This is due to the progressive “institutionalization” of bitcoin. From September, in fact, BTC will be legal tender in El Salvador, where it will coexist with the dollar. In the United States, on the other hand, there are several projects by mayors to turn their cities into bitcoin hubs.
The latest being Scott Conger, mayor of Jackson, Tennessee, and Miami mayor Francis Suarez, who is aiming to do the same. And let’s not forget the New York elections where Democratic candidate Eric Adams has openly declared that he also wants to make the Big Apple a BTC capital.
All this justifies the growing popularity among institutional and retail investors. In the long run, this could support the circulation of BTC and with it the growth of the overall value of transactions.
