Over the last couple of weeks we've seen a trend setting in that has propelled the massive supply coins up in value. Bitcoin has a limited supply compared to Ripple. 16 million vs 38 billion. Do people care about supply anymore?
Despite the massive supplies of coins like Ripple, they are the ones seeing an incredible rise right now. The rise has been so incredible, that they are starting to take over the top 10 in market cap.
Just today Stellar joined the top 10 and now there are five coins that over a billion supply. Just in the past week Lumens have gone up by 188% to about $0.65 cents bringing the market cap to just over $11.5 billion. That means it would take Stellar reaching something around $15 per coin to get to the market cap of Bitcoin.
But Ripple on the other hand has gone up 111% percent in a week and if it does it again, Ripple could be just about even with the market cap of Bitcoin. $5 Ripple is equal to about $15,000 Bitcoin.
With the rise of the cryptos with the massive supplies going up in value so quick, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin have not had the strongest of weeks. Ethereum lost it's 2nd place spot to Ripple and now Litecoin is about to lose the 6th place spot to Stellar.
So does anyone care about the supply anymore? To be honest, I don't think so. Right now almost everyone is trying to stake their claim and place their bet on what coin or coins out of the list of more than 1,300 cryptos is going to be the one that skyrockets like Bitcoin did. The one that becomes adopted in the world.
Because people can still get in early, they are buying up these lower priced coins at a rapid pace, but how long can this last? My guess is off and on throughout the year. So many projects have huge benchmarks to hit in 2018 that we will learn quickly which projects are going to survive and those that are going to fail. I wouldn't suggest ignoring supply, but we're all in pretty early, so everything has room to grow.
By the end of 2018 the markets will be less dominated by a John McAfee tweet and more on the implementation of projects. Once that happens the volatility will level out a little bit, but the opportunity to get in early will be over for the most part.
Remember, I'm no financial advisor, I'm just telling you what I see happening from my own observations. I would love to discuss in the comments below.
Do you think people care about supply when they are buying crypto right now?
Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading.
I'm not sure supply matters for most of the coins. Most of the coins out there are not currencies that serve any real utility, they are speculation tokens. So it's as much economics as it's advertising and PR.
Also, general supply of something is very different for the supply available on the market. With a huge part of the investors being hodlers, a lot of the theoretical supply is cut out from circulation.
And you add the fact that people in general are not the most logical and predictable bunch and you get a truly volotile market that can move in all kinds of directions. For now, everything keeps going up, but sooner or later, there are going to be casualties.
Thanks for the great reply. I agree 100% there will be some casualties, many I bet. Of the 1,300+ coins at least 1,000 will ultimately fail or be sold off.
I don't think supply matters right now for many trying to buy, and make a good point about not all are functioning coins but are tokens. Things like ripple, cardano and stellar are coins and they have massive supplies. If any of those go to $10, you're talking like 100's of billions of dollars. That is massive. It just seems like some of this is just unrealistic. We'll see though, I appreciate your thoughts. You got a new follower.
We'll see how things go, but supply will surely play a big part sooner or later.
Altcoins are now open to a wider demographic.
Coins like Ethereum,Ripple,Litecoin,Monero get regulary mentioned on the news.
Alts are no longer a vessel for speculators who missed the BTC boat. Average Joe is now in on the smart contracts too. However, I doubt that they all read the whitepapers.
I still think the average joe has no clue what a ripple is. lol I do agree they are getting a lot of attention right now, but still not enough to really drive the market because they talk about things like Bitcoin bubble and stuff. I think you are right we're opening to a wider demographic, but it is still really early. I appreciate your reply! You got a new follower.
All about demand bro !!
I agree 100%, but there comes a time when the demand falls below the supply. When do you think that is? Are we close?
I dont think so, its a psychological effect. Its better to own a whole of something than to own a fraction. That's the simple cause of the rise of the less than one dollar alts.. The moment they reach one dollar people's buying momentum would decrease...
I agree it is psychological, but not sound investing. lol, I've been in the game for a little while now, and me owning a half of a Bitcoin made me more money than owning 3 Ethereums and a couple of other alt-coins last year. Now the game is changing some, and I do think people want the whole instead of the fraction, but it still about the percentage of increase. When something like Ripple is $3.50 with a massive supply, is it even possible for it to double a couple of times? Bitcoin has proven it can grow and reach huge numbers. I think you're right that it is a psychological effect, but I'm not sure that it is wise. Thanks for the reply. You got a new follower.
Didn't eth just have a big jump? I think of ripple as a shitcoin. Never heard of steller I will say this when I want to cash out at the crypto ATM the choices are bitcoin and litecoin. To me that counts for something
I agree, I use litecoin to cash out all the time. Ripple actually solves a major issue for a trillion dollar industry, so I don't think of it as a shitcoin, it is in use now for banks. Stellar is like ripple, but for businesses and people not banks. They have a working platform too. THanks for the reply.
With Bitcoin use cases aside from being a store of value are actually quite limited. Transaction fees are high.
Ripple on the other hand was specifically designed to make international banking transfers more efficient. With the banking clients that are already using it, they've accomplished something no other crypto has done yet. Mainstream acceptance. Ripple is disruptive to SWIFT and the traditional international transfer model.
For this reason I believe, people are interested in buying Ripple.
My main concern is that Ripple has approx 50Bln XRP locked up to be release increasing the supply at a steady 1Bln XRP per month. I think this increased supply will negatively affect the price of Ripple. What are your thoughts?
I never understood why any individual would buy Ripple, it's for banks to international transfers, not for us to buy coffee....
Small supply coins suffer from the effect that demand pushes price to hard, so no-one will spend in anticipation of ever higher price.
Also it's basic numbers, there are 2,100,000,000,000,000 Satoshi availalable (assuming none are lost) and in 2014 the global economy was worth 10,000,000,000,000,000 US cents, so if we all agreed Bitcoin is the single global currency, the minimum unit of account is 5 cents. That might seem OK for first world citizens, but it would cause significant price inflation in many countries.
Also many Bitcoins are lost, and they won't all be available for decades yet by which time global $ value will have increased further.
Small circulation coins are never going to take over the world. We need billions of coins or even unlimited supply to use as currency.
I think the mathy people care. Most probably don't understand.
I think supply is still a factor, but investors are looking at other variables. Just because I supply less coins than another provider doesn't mean my coins are more valuable (or in greater demand).
As a speculator I look at much more than supply/demand, I look at factors that generate value.
What problem does this currency solve?
Is the technology scalable?
Who is backing this asset/currency?
What can I use the currency for (other than just an investment)?
As more of these questions are answered with strong responses, the assets that answer them will get more attention (and therefore value) in the market.