I wasn't exactly into Bitcoin on "Day One," when it began trading at a fraction of a dollar, but I was definitely what you'd call an early adopter.
When I realized the incredible potential, I knew I had to be "in." I got set up quickly as a miner with an expensive, powerful, and crazy-hot computer processor setup in a spare room, all dedicated to crunching numbers and producing Bitcoin.
From that day to today - all along - I've been saying that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general would reach a kind of critical mass that would absolutely blow the ceiling off and lead to the kind of staggering profits we're just beginning to see today.
(You read that right: I said "just beginning," and I mean it. Remember, digital assets have already made 244,933 times more than gold.)
From here, we can expect cryptos like Bitcoin to skyrocket. One of my more well-known predictions is that Bitcoin could hit $500,000 by 2030 - check that out here.
So I'll tell you what I've told my Microcurrency Trader subscribers: I think we're at that all-important tipping point right now, and I caught a chart this weekend that proves it.
I'll share it with you...
Institutional Money Is Pouring into Crypto
We've talked a bit about the fact that PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ), which have almost $400 billion in market cap between them, have thrown their full weight behind Bitcoin, integrating it into their massively popular payment platforms. In fact, I said owning these two stocks was essential for making money on Bitcoin - these two are like a mini-Bitcoin ETF.
"20x Bigger Than Bitcoin": For every $1,000 you could make with Bitcoin, this special trade could make you as much as $20,040 instead. Details...
You heard it here first, but these days a lot of analysts have been citing these two companies, plus more lining up, as a big reason for Bitcoin's big 2020 performance.
Digital Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz gave an interview to the BBC this past weekend: "Now we're seeing places like PayPal - at 340 million customers - servicing Bitcoin and selling Bitcoin [along with] big insurance companies in the United States... As the institutions move in, there just is not a lot of supply."
On their own, PayPal and Square have basically opened up tens of millions of places and ways Bitcoin can be used. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) isn't far behind. Last month, with the help of crypto startup BlockFi, it unveiled a Bitcoin Rewards credit card that will give users 1.5% of their purchases back in the form of - surprise - Bitcoin; users will get $250 in BTC if they shell out $3,000 or more in the first three months.
If you've been with me for a while, you'll remember when I covered the fight between Visa and Coinbase over Bitcoin. It seems like a million years ago, but it was 2017. Visa and Coinbase made nice in the meantime and teamed up to offer the Coinbase Card that lets accountholders spend Bitcoin through their Visa accounts.
Huge Wall Street Players Are Taking Big BTC Positions
This kind of institutional backing is critical for the growth of Bitcoin and microcurrencies, but, in that chart I mentioned earlier, we're seeing plenty of evidence that institutions are flat-out buying Bitcoin itself.
HUGE CRYPTO PREDICTION: Bitcoin could hit $50,000 by the end of 2021 and $500,000 by 2030 - here's what you need to know...
"Big money," the kind that institutions like major investment banks, giant pension funds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and the like, have helped drive stocks like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) to dizzying heights. These high-powered managers plow hundreds of billions of dollars into these stocks to take and move huge positions.
Simple economics, right? More money, higher price. Well, that's true for Bitcoin and other microcurrencies, as well.
This past weekend, when Bitcoin was busting through the $34,000 level, CryptoQuant blockchain analytics CEO Ki Young Ju tweeted a chart that showed more than BTC35,000 had left wallet accounts on Coinbase over the first two days of 2021.
That's around $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin at last weekend's prices, and a sure sign that institutional money is betting big on the digital currency, loading up on BTC even at all-time highs.
Just like there's only one reason insiders buy more of their company stock, there's only one reason for an institution to beef up its Bitcoin positions in this environment...
They're absolutely confident it's going much higher. The days of the "1%" looking down their noses at crypto are over.
And the thing is, relatively few institutions are into Bitcoin right now. Imagine if every single investment firm on the planet began to diversify to include Bitcoin and other digital assets. If they put 2%, 3%, or 5% of their capital into coins... it would do nothing less than trigger the biggest crypto inflow ever, period.
And you definitely want to be along for that ride. From here on out, microcurrencies are a whole new ballgame. Bitcoin went back above $33,000 yesterday, like I predicted, and Ethereum topped $1,000.
This past Monday, we added a whole new coin to the Microcurrency Trader model portfolio - you can learn how to get that research right here.
I'm expecting a lot more where that came from.
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About the Author
Tom Gentile, options trading specialist for Money Map Press, is widely known as America's No. 1 Pattern Trader thanks to his nearly 30 years of experience spotting lucrative patterns in options trading. Tom has taught over 300,000 traders his option trading secrets in a variety of settings, including seminars and workshops. He's also a bestselling author of eight books and training courses.