The date was suspicious, but few paid attention to it: on April 35, Elon Musk announced in a tweet that he would send a "real dogecoin" to the moon via Space X. And the cryptocurrency quotes jumped XNUMX% in the space of an hour. It was probably the richest April Fool's day in history, but Air Baltic airline's decision to accept payment in dogecoin, the virtual currency which in 2021 made the most significant gain: +1.500% from 0,004 US cents to 0,11. Not bad for a currency born in 2013 as a joke (“doge” refers to a popular cartoon dog) and partly for an educational purpose: the aim was to create a very low value cryptocurrency, useful for allowing beginners to practice without running big risks.
But jokes sometimes come true. Today whoever wants to buy or sell dogecoin can register at Coinbase, the platform that debuted on the Nasdaq with a market value that, after a robust ups and downs, closed its first day on a regulated listing with a valuation of 88 billion dollars, a price justified by the rapid growth of the customer base (56 million at the end of March, with a progression of three million a month), of global diffusion (more than 100 countries) and of rapidly expanding profits: 1,8 billion dollars in the quarter, and growing rapidly. In short, the company created by Brian Armstrong, catapulted yesterday into the list of multi-billionaires, is much more than simple market madness. Not only because of the billionaire valuation of the platform or because of the incredible size of the bitcoin and other cryptocurrency market (more than two trillion dollars, or more than the Italian public debt) but because the perception of the phenomenon has profoundly changed over the last couple of years: no longer a money laundering tool at the service of crime or a means of escaping state controls, but an asset to be bought to defend the purchasing power of one's capital threatened by inflation, which will sooner or later come, given the gigantic injection liquidity provided by central banks.
The first to convert was Paul Tudor Jones, manager who manages assets for 38 billion dollars. In May of a year ago he said he would convert 2% of the management into bitcoin. Since then Bitcoin has convinced people like Ray Dalio, Bill Miller o Stanley Druckenmiller. According to Wall Street Journal, the big names in US finance have accumulated at least 11,5 billion in Bitcoin. And to these must be added companies such as Square, administered by Jack Dorsey of Twitter or, more importantly, Tesla: Elon Musk's house has invested $1,2 billion in cryptocurrencies.
Finally, recently many central banks around the world, such as those in Singapore, Sweden and China, have announced plans to create national cryptocurrencies inspired at least in part by bitcoin. A delicate game, because in the control of the currency lies a large part of the power of the monetary authorities. But central bankers are also on the hunt for innovative technology-based solutions. At the origin of the diffusion of cryptocurrencies there is the response of States to the costs and consequences of the pandemic.
The economic stimuli decided by states and central banks have injected a great deal of liquidity into the system: many market operators have a lot of money available to invest, or can borrow it at very low interest. One of the most common investments here would be traditional currencies, but investors are snubbing them because they fear that growth-enhancing policies could drive up inflation and cause them to lose value. With this in mind, investing in bitcoin becomes an attractive alternative for diversify your investments and defend yourself against inflation.
The risk? It remains high, as demonstrated by the trend of Coinbase itself, which closed the financial statements at the end of 2019 in the red coinciding with one of the many disastrous falls in the prices of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies traded. A particularly high risk for retail in a market that is still large without investor protection rules. But after the landing of Coinbase on the Nasdaq it is easy to predict an evolution of the system as foreseen and desired by Armstrong himself, who is responsible for the decisive move for the diffusion of Bitcoin: the abolition of anonymity, long defended by the libertarian and anarchist pioneers who populated the system, but alienated investors chasing earnings in the light of the sun. Today not only Coinbase but also Kraken, the first Bitcoin platform to have the price and trading volume displayed on the Bloomberg terminal, allow you to operate as long as you reveal your identity. In short, the system is becoming an adult, while maintaining some "wild" characteristics: independence from state mints, but also from banking intermediation. This is also why there are no limits whatsoever on what you can lose or, more rarely, gain.
