PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel says Bitcoin will surpass the market cap of gold and eventually rival the value of the entire stock market with a price 100 times higher than it is today.
Thiel, the first outside investor in Facebook and also co-founder of Palantir Technologies, made the comments at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami.
“The real competitor for Bitcoin is not Ethereum. That’s a payment system,” he said. “It’s not even gold… it’s the stock market as a whole. This is the way Bitcoin trades every day.”
Thiel described the original cryptocurrency, which many believe will function as a store of value – much like gold – rather than a practical use-case for payments, as the most honest and efficient market in the world. He referred to it as the “the canary in the coal mine” for predicting record levels of inflation.
He added: “Companies – woke companies – are sort of quasi-controlled by the government in a way that Bitcoin never will be.”
An estimated 25,000 people are attending the conference in South Beach.
Meanwhile in Florida, trading platform eToro unveiled a $20 million fund to purchase NFTs as part of its eToro.art initiative, which aims to support NFT creators and brands.
In the last 24 hours the overall market cap of the more than 18,700 coins rose back above $2 trillion – $2.03tr – following a 1.4% increase.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – gained 1% in the last 24 hours. BTC is around $43,650 at the time of writing (7am UK) and down 2% in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – added 2% to around $3,270. ETH, set for a huge upgrade soon, is up slightly over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token gained 2% to $436, leaving it 4% up over seven days.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token rose 7% to $121 and is 1% up on its price last Friday morning.
Terra, described as a programmable money for the internet and the year’s stellar performer, was the only major coin to lose value as it sunk 2%. Its payment token LUNA is now at $105 yet 5% higher than its price a week ago.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP rose 2% to 79 cents, which leaves it 4% down over seven days.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, gained 2% to $1.09. It is down 2% over the course of a week.
Avalanche, a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments, came out of nowhere months ago to break into the top 10 currencies. Its AVAX token is closing on $89 following a 6% gain in the last 24 hours, and down 4% in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, is at $20.52 following a 2% rise and 2% lower than its price a week ago.
Meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE) was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. It is back above 15c following a 6% boost which leaves it 13% up over the course of a week. It enjoyed two days of major gains at the start of the week thanks to Tesla entrepreneur and DOGE evangelist Elon Musk’s purchase of a $3 billion stake in Twitter.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in the last few days, click here.
For valuations of the top 250 coins by market cap plus 24-hour price change and volume traded, see below.
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