November 2 is the date on which All Souls’ Day is celebrated, a tribute to loved ones who have left us. And in this sense, a tribute to the most beloved member of the cryptosphere: Bitcoin (BTC) could not be missing. After all, BTC, although it has not yet left us, is one of the investments that most had its “death” decreed in all of history. Even so, cryptocurrency stands firm and continues to bring wealth and freedom to millions of people. But BTC critics are apparently more restrained in 2022 and avoiding talking about the “death of cryptocurrency. According to the website 99 bitcoins, which gathers “obituaries” of BTC, 2022 recorded 24 “deaths” of the cryptocurrency so far, the second lowest number since 2014. With this result, the year 2022 is only behind 2020, which recorded only 14 “deaths”. But that year was unusual, as BTC was on a long rally. On the other hand, this year is one of correction and dips, both of which often make room for doomsday prophets to decree the end of BTC.
Number of Bitcoin “deaths” per year since 2014. Source: 99 bitcoins. These BTC deaths are usually alarmist or catastrophe news, classifying the cryptocurrency as a pyramid scheme or talking about strong corrections. However, BTC has always proved resilient and has made all these headlines obsolete as time has passed – and the price has started to appreciate again. Now check out what were the main “death certificates” the media gave about BTC so far in 2022.
“A decentralized pyramid scheme”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Bank, is an old acquaintance of the market because of his criticism of BTC in 2017. That year, the CEO claimed that BTC was a “fraud” and that he did not allow bank employees to trade the cryptocurrency. . However, the price of BTC broke the all-time high a few months later, making Dimon regret his statement in January 2018. But the CEO returned to criticize the market in September 2022, when he said the following sentence: “I am a big skeptic into cryptocurrency tokens, which you call cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin. They are decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
“Dead as predicted”
In 2021, BTC broke its high again and reached almost $70,000, but saw its price drop over the following months. The apex of this drop came in May, when the Earth (LUNC) ecosystem collapsed and took some of the value of BTC along with it. At the time, Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) had large BTC reserves, but had to sell them to try to save their tokens. Sales drove down the price of BTC, which soon dropped below $20,000 and led analytics house Seeking Alpha to decree that: “When the dust settled on Kwon’s (Earth’s founder) dream, at least he had the vision to understand that the project had lost investor confidence and a chance for mass adoption. We can now say the same about many other cryptocurrency projects and I believe Bitcoin is no different.” At the time, Seeking Alpha published this in a text titled Bitcoin is Dead as Predicted, in free translation. Needless to say, the text was deeply mistaken.
And there goes Schiff again!
Of course, a list of BTC’s demise wouldn’t be complete without something from Peter Schiff, one of the cryptocurrency’s most ardent critics. But unlike Dimon and Seeking Alpha, the “death” decreed by Schiff does not concern BTC’s present or past, but rather its future. As the price of BTC entered a correction after the Earth collapse in May, the cryptocurrency started June with losses of nearly 70%. On the 18th of that month, Schiff decided to take the moment to write a tweet where he mixed analysis and prediction for the cryptocurrency: “Long-term Bitcoin #HOLDers are not worried, as they have experienced drops of 73% before. But previous devaluations didn’t even come close to the full market value lost during that move, nor did they involve massive leverage. This crash is just beginning. Bitcoin will not recover.” Probably, Schiff used “recovery” in the sense of saying that BTC would never go back to its all-time high again. Is he right and has BTC hit rock bottom from which it will never come out again? It is impossible to say with certainty that BTC is dead or that it will reach $100,000. But one thing is for sure: the investor-favorite cryptocurrency already has 464 “death certificates” since 2010, and so far, none of them have actually buried BTC. Let the next All Souls’ Day come.
