Bitcoin's Lazarus effect: Rising from the dead, again and again

According to Bitcoin Obituaries data by Bitcoin education portal 99Bitcoins, Bitcoin was declared “dead” four times in 2023.

In the world of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has been declared dead more times than one can count.

Over the past year, the digital currency has been pronounced dead numerous times, yet it continues to rise, proving its resilience and potential as a disruptive technology.

According to Bitcoin Obituaries data by Bitcoin education portal 99Bitcoins, Bitcoin was declared “dead” four times in 2023. Despite these obituaries, Bitcoin continues to thrive and gain acceptance in various sectors.

One of the most significant criticisms of Bitcoin is its price volatility.
As Bitcoin’s price took a sharp dive to “pre-Elon Musk pump” levels of $30,000, mainstream media took an unsurprising approach, covering the market-wide crash by announcing that Bitcoin is dead.

The end of Bitcoin (BTC) has now been announced more than 400 times in 12 years, according to the Bitcoin Obituaries archive.

Bitcoin’s resilience can also be seen in its adoption by various companies. For instance, Hut 8, one of the largest digital asset mining companies in North America, made a binding offer to buy out an insolvent company. This shows the confidence businesses have in the future of Bitcoin.

Moreover, Bitcoin has surpassed both Tesla and Berkshire Hathaway stocks to become one of the top 10 assets by market cap in the world. This is a testament to Bitcoin’s growing influence and acceptance in the financial world.

However, scepticism remains.

Larry Fink, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, once viewed the industry with scepticism but recently stated that crypto could “revolutionise finance." Yet he favoured the exchange-traded fund, or ETF, as an investment vehicle that’s categorically different from the original ideals of digital assets and could push the industry in the wrong direction.

Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital and a former senior executive at Facebook, pronounced Bitcoin dead in a podcast streamed on April 22, 2023, back when it was trading at $27,817.504.

Despite these criticisms, Bitcoin continues to rise from the ashes, proving its critics wrong time and again.

Its price volatility, the still-unsolved mystery of creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and its decentralised structure that enables usage in illegal transactions make Bitcoin an easy target for sensational headlines.

Yet, it continues to grow and gain acceptance, showing its potential as a disruptive technology.

Bitcoin is now trading at $43,090.53, showing a modest increase of 0.1 percent over the past 24 hours, indicating a relatively stable trading period.
Looking at the week-long trend, BTC has experienced a 0.6 percent rise, reflecting a gradual but steady upward movement in its market value. This performance is part of the broader cryptocurrency market dynamics, where the global market cap currently stands at $1.7 trillion, having changed by 1.7 percent in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin's current market capitalisation is $843,286,220,126, maintaining its dominance at 49.5 percent in the crypto market.

The current bullish sentiment in Bitcoin comes from a wave of optimism surrounding the possibility that the Fed may have reached the end of its tightening cycle with interest rates.

With numerous Fed officials echoing the possibility last week that interest rates may have reached their peak and might soon be coming down, investors finally see a distant ray of hope in the current era of monetary tightening.

As the world continues to grapple with the implications of this disruptive technology, one thing is clear - Bitcoin is here to stay.