How Much Bitcoin?. 0 is the wrong answer. | by Chris DeMuth Jr | The Capital | Dec, 2024
What is the correct percentage of your cash in bitcoin? It is impossible to perfect. 100% is extreme. So is 0%. Either is an all in bet. The first expresses total skepticism towards government fiat and the prudence of the fiscal and monetary policies that support it. The second expresses an almost religious devotion to the same. That devotion has been sorely tested over the past decade.
This time a decade ago, $100,000 in US dollars bought 318 bitcoins. Over the course of the decade, the USD collapsed in BTC terms. The same $100,000 currently buys just over one bitcoin. As ownership gets increasingly convenient, it will be harder for financial advisors to justify repeating another decade betting all in on the depreciating US dollar. Bitcoin advocates like me will want at least 10% of cash in BTC.
Even bitcoin skeptics will have a hard time answering “no” when asked if their clients own any. What will they do? Probably start somewhere, maybe with a 2–3% allocation. Even a 1% allocation allows them to at least say that they have some in order to not lose clients that don’t want to have all their cash exposed to government fiat. As bitcoin allocations become the norm, prices are apt to adjust higher.
Everyone should get started somewhere. The minimal effective dose is to simply sign up for Coinbase (COIN) here. Get $20 after your first trade. This lets you just set up a wallet, familiarize yourself with trading, and have a place to accept payments. Through the years, I’ve always accepted payments in BTC when offered, which added up over time to make all sorts of marginal transactions far better than marginal.
At least it shouldn’t be. Early last decade, it was mostly libertarian weirdos like me on Silk Road (free Ross!). It had subversive and political undertones cultivated by people who love liberty and privacy and hate government enemies of our principles. We annoyed them. Government antagonism peaked with the current SEC but is about to recede. What was political will lose its ideological ghetto and become the norm.
