In an interview with economist Marc Friedrich, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said that Bitcoin is not the aforementioned as it was in 2015 or 2017. According to Saylor, the arguments against Bitcoin (BTC) that were relevant four years agone are no longer applicable.

Bitcoin monthly chart (Coinbase). Source: TradingView.com

How is Bitcoin similar Lebron?

Bitcoin has grown exponentially since the 2017 superlative in terms of infrastructure, fundamentals and adoption. In the past twelvemonth, institutions accept started to increasingly see BTC as a store of value and an aggrandizement hedge.

In 2017, critics said Bitcoin was too volatile and that at that place was a take a chance information technology could drop to nothing because information technology was an asset in a nascent phase. Saylor emphasized that these arguments are less relevant now because BTC has evolved significantly in iii years.

Saylor emphasized that Lebron James played basketball game from ages 8 to 18, only he matured to evolve into one of the all-time greats. He said Bitcoin went through a like period, stating:

"I also thought information technology was of import to accost head on the fears and anxieties of the original Bitcoin and the crypto community that have all these tropes, like 'oh it'due south risky, it's volatile, might go to zippo,' and they are nonetheless living in the 2012, 2015, and 2017 timeframe. And what I desire to say to them is Lebron James played basketball from age 9 to eighteen, and he was talented simply irratic and volatile. Merely then he grew up and from age 18 to 28, he destroyed everybody and everything in his style."

I of the major changes Bitcoin has seen since 2017 is its marketplace structure. Three years agone, retail platforms similar BitMEX were the dominant players in the derivatives market place.

Equally Cointelegraph reported, institutional platforms such every bit the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have consistently processed volumes similar to leading retail-focused exchanges. Equally of Dec. iv, the CME BTC futures market place has an open interest of $1.14 billion, which is higher than Binance Futures, Bybit, Huobi and BitMEX.

On-chain data too show a considerable increase in institutional growth based on large transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Large BTC transactions doubled this year

According to data from IntoTheBlock, the number of transactions valued at above $100,000 has increased twofold over the past yr. This is indicative of the increase in institutional action on the Bitcoin blockchain, the analysts said.

Because the noticeable change in volume trends and on-concatenation information in the by 12 months, the analysts wrote that Bitcoin is seeing high institutional growth. They wrote:

"The number of transactions of over $100,000 recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain on a daily basis has more than than doubled from a year before. Furthermore, the full volume transferred in these has experienced fifty-fifty larger growth with 6x over the same period."

Based on a diverseness of factors, including the fact that in that location is significant institutional interest in the Bitcoin market place, investors like Saylor remain confident that BTC is evolving into an established store of value and that this is improving its perception with mainstream investors.