Hi guys, Today for my Wednesday Morning Post, we're talking about Bitcoin Gains Adoption and Momentum. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what that means. You know, this is a relatively new topic for me - since early 2022, I got into the cryptocurrency market.
As my Hive profile notes (and this is kind of why I'm talking about this), I discuss my novels, leadership topics and other related news. Well, this is kind of both aspects. I'm going to talk a little bit about the leadership aspect of this and other related news as it relates to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies - more Bitcoin in particular. But I'm going to stop and just talk about leadership as influence, One of my favorite sayings by John Maxwell: leaders influence (I always take that in the positive sense). I'm hopefully going to positively influence you. If you're skeptical or don't know anything about this, hopefully dig in, understand it, do some research so that you can gain an understanding of what it is.
And then, leaders lead by example. I got into this market after doing my homework, after doing my research. I said, There's a viable market - I need to get involved in it. Again, none of this is intended as financial advice because I'm not a financial advisor. But I got into the crypto market in early 2022, and I've got less than Ten percent of my portfolio in there right now. But again, I can lead by example in that this isn't something theoretical or speculative - I'm actually involved in doing it. So, I believe as a leader: Lead by example. I want to talk a little bit about my experience and share that with you.
First point: A little bit about the Bitcoin market and why this is big news (pro or con). A new 2024 study estimates that 56 million people roughly Americans now own at least a share of Bitcoin, or about 21% of the adult population (those over 18). What's more, a high percentage of those people are open to adding cryptocurrency to their personal financial plans - which again includes me because I started doing that in 2022.
Second part: I just want to talk a little bit about knowledge and understanding - doing your own research because that's really, I think, how we make decisions (like, medically, but especially financially). You know, we work with a certified financial planner who has talked about this. He's not against it, but he's a fiduciary, so he can't really recommend it. But I started there first - I wanted to find out about it. I started getting my own knowledge in early 2022. I started listening, reading a lot about it, and that's the first part: Get knowledge. Don't jump into something you don't know. You probably shouldn't or wouldn't, but gain knowledge about it. And I'm going to talk a little bit more in-depth about that as we go.
One of the guys we're going to talk about - Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy - he says to put in 100 hours of study. And I've heard others say, Hey, in 10 hours, you can get to understand this; in 20 hours, you can probably get to be an expert. But I'm probably well on my way toward hitting 100 hours of study
So, I want to ask a question about this first: Do rising inflation, the printing of money, and rising levels of Bitcoin ownership have anything to do with one another? Well, my conclusion is YES, they do and that's one of the reasons I put some money into the crypto market (or the Bitcoin ecosystem, whatever you might want to call it) in 2022.
Here's why - I'm going to share this real quick. Part of this has to do with inflation. As I noted in a previous video, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, since February 2023, the money supply has increased 32% - okay, that's more than 30% - the largest jump since 2020. And it's been said (I think accurately) that our money supply is increasing around 18% a year currently in 2024.
So, what does that mean? Well, if you look at this chart
that goes back to the start of the Fed - which is actually not a federal organization; it's a private corporation - in 1913, a dollar's worth (or $100) was worth $100. As of 2019, it stands at about $2.91. Probably with the increase in the money supply, it's worth even less now. So, our dollar has eroded in purchasing power - that is what inflation is, guys. When the money supply is inflated, the value of the dollar decreases. We have fiat currency - it's not backed by gold (I'll get into that maybe a little more later).
But a lot of people - myself included - are viewing this crypto market (and Bitcoin in particular) as a hedge against inflation in 2024-2025. Because, let's face it: If you've got a passbook savings account in 2024, you're probably lucky to get maybe 1-2% interest (probably not even that much). A jumbo savings account with $100,000 might get 4.5%. So, if inflation is running at 7%, you're losing money, right? If you're making passbook savings account interest, you're actually losing money.
And companies realize they're losing money - their cost of capital is much greater than that. But if it's inflating at 18% a year (and it could for the foreseeable next few years), in four years, you've lost 100% of your capital's value. So, you have to be aware of what's happening with inflation and the deflating value of your dollar - which was a motivator for me in 2024.
So, you know:
And this trend could take place due to artificial intelligence. Banking can certainly occur in the future without banks or bankers - and that's really interesting. Right now, if companies want to do business overseas (in, Nigeria or Africa), they don't really trust the banks, or they can't really do business because the banking system is so different. But with decentralized finance, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology, that's probably going to be possible beyond.
I think this is a trend to keep in mind with the move into Bitcoin and digital assets - especially by institutional investors - in 2025 and coming years. So, this is something I've been paying very close attention to. It piqued my interest, and I said, Hey, I've got to do something and I think this is a great solution.
I think it's entirely likely that we will see a digital monetary system that can establish international trust - globally by 2030.
Point two: Who are some of the major players and advocates? so who's involved in this? And that's always intrigued me, if people who are successful with business backgrounds are doing something, I should probably pay attention to it.
And it blew me away. We've talked about Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy. I believe they started buying Bitcoin back August in 2019 and then bought another really big chunk in November. They've financed about another $3.5 billion worth, so he's got over $8 billion of Bitcoin - and he's the CEO of a publicly traded company. So, he had to go through a whole process with his executives, the board, his investors, regulatory agencies all of that. But they bought over $8 billion. Now, why did they do that?, I'm going to circle back and cover that.
Then we've got:
Elon Musk of Tesla - somebody bought $2 billion in Bitcoin in 2024. Now, he sold some off (there's some arms/hands going up in the market). Why did he do that? Look, he's influencing the price. And these guys are leaders too business leaders. Elon Musk tweets about something, and their stock price goes up or down (or Bitcoin goes up or down). So, he's got a lot of sway.
Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks (well-known).
Robert Kiyosaki, New York Times best-selling author (Rich Dad Poor Dad). He's into Bitcoin (and some other coins too).
Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank.
All these guys - successful business owners, billionaires or multi-multi-millionaires - are buying it.
Interestingly too, this wasn't always on everybody's radar, but:
Harvard, Brown, and Yale endowments have been buying Bitcoin since 2019
MassMutual (big insurance company).
Marathon Digital Holdings (which I own some stock in - it's a digital asset technology company that mines cryptocurrencies).
They've bought significant positions (amounts) of Bitcoin and are holding them in their treasury. So, we're seeing many successful millionaires, billionaires, and major institutions adopt Bitcoin for their treasury.
So, I think, as a rational person, you've got to ask why? Okay, and I have. I'm thinking, Hey, this isn't just passing fad or something funky (or in the dark web and all that). There's a lot of misnomers out there about it. So, look at who's involved and why they're involved.
This is a huge industry - blockchain technology. I've sat in on (I think) six different live webinars dealing with the whole technology as a whole and some specific players and companies involved. Pretty amazing.
Point three: My "why" elevator points. And I'm going to bring up one from Rob on Digital Asset Network, but I think these are some great points. If somebody asked me, Hey Brad, why are you involved? Why are you a proponent of Bitcoin? (Because I wasn't in 2019 and it was because I didn't understand it.)
But a lot of people are considering Bitcoin as digital gold or Gold 2.0. And here's a big point that shouldn't be missed: It's scarce. There are only 21 million Bitcoin that will ever be minted And there are about 19.5 million right now. So, 21 million - no more Bitcoin is being minted. It's a digital minting, not an actual minting.
That's going to make the value go up because it is scarce - and it's called market insurance. If you have a scarce asset that you can't get more of, the value of it (if people desire it and want to buy it, which we're seeing happening) is going to go up.
And unlike gold, you can send Bitcoin to anyone within minutes for next to nothing (I'm not going to get into all the fees - I think those are going to be going down). But you can't send a bunch of gold to somebody across the country or around the world - it's just not going to happen. It's physically very cumbersome. But you can send Bitcoin. Even if you had a billion dollars of Bitcoin, you could send it to somebody in Africa or Europe within minutes.
And then, this is something Michael Saylor said (and I really believe this to be true): It is the best-performing asset class ever. Think about that - it's only been out since 2009, and in about 15 years now, it's been running at about a 310% rate, which nothing else is doing, guys. It's better than gold, oil, or stocks ever.
That's a major point when you think about it - when you understand the market, when you comprehend it. I think that's huge. It used to be worth five cents at one point (I don't know exactly when that was), but now it's worth (as of June 2025) about $110K, guys - from five cents.
What if you would have bought 50 or 100 of those at five cents? And that's why he's heavily invested. I'm moderately invested, but those are some of the reasons why I'm involved - and they make sense to me. I think it's a good move. Again, this isn't financial advice.
Final thoughts to close out on this:
As I said, educate yourself. Research is about educating how the world is going to change, guys. It's going to change in the next 10 years. Banking, digital currencies - those are going to be part of that change
Bitcoin is an asset class now. It is the asset of the 21st century, and it's considered (and I believe) a strong store of value. And it is the solution to the economic problem that we're facing
So, think of Bitcoin as a long-term savings account. Buy it to hold it (HODL it is what we call it). And we're seeing more institutional adoption as investors are buying to hold it - just like they bought gold in the past. I think this surpasses gold in many, many ways.
Bitcoin is a more mature asset than it was 10 years ago, and it's only going to get better and many other altcoins too.
Hope this was helpful, Thank you so much for reading. Please reach show some love with your upvotes or comments have an awesome day. Bye!
