Bitcoin’s zero-price risk fades as limited supply and growing institutional ownership tighten the market and support long-term demand.
- Bitcoin’s price saw nearly 13% drawdown in value over the past week, leading to speculation about its potential to reach zero.
- Adam Back, Blockstream CEO and a notable figure in Bitcoin's original whitepaper, asserts that Bitcoin will never go to zero.
- Back said he put an order to scoop all Bitcoins for just 2 cents.
- The notion that Bitcoin is unlikely to reach zero is attributed to its limited supply and increasing institutional ownership by market participants.
Bitcoin has lost almost 13% of its value in the last week, and many people are wondering if it could go to zero. However, Adam Back attested that it would not happen.
In June of last year, however, Blockstream CEO Adam Back, one of the few people mentioned in Bitcoin's original whitepaper, promised to save Bitcoin. Back said in response to Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor's then bullish call that Bitcoin was going to reach $1 million per coin.
Back said that the limit order, which was placed on Bitfinex in 2020, was meant to "put a floor" under Bitcoin's price and beat a similar 1-cent order by Alistair Milne, an early investor in Bitcoin. “$1million Bitcoin it is then, as it's not going to zero, as I have a limit order at 2c/BTC for 21m BTC. Outbid alistairmilne's 1c with 2c/BTC 21mil BTC live order on Bitfinex,” wrote Back.
Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $69,155.76, down 2.8% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitcoin remained in ‘bearish’ territory, as chatter remained in ‘extremely high’ territory over the past day.
Even though the comments were ironic, they fit into a larger story in the crypto markets: the idea that Bitcoin is unlikely to fall to zero because of limited supply and more institutional ownership.
Even if the market crashed, buying the whole Bitcoin supply wouldn't be possible in practice. So far, about 20 million BTC have been mined, and another 1 million will be mined over the next few decades. A large part of this Bitcoin currently in circulation is held in long-term cold storage, by spot Bitcoin ETFs, or by corporate treasury holders.
Institutions Are Vacuuming Up Supply Faster
Strategy (MSTR) alone owns about 713,502 BTC, which is worth $49,348 million at current prices. U.S.-listed spot ETFs like BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, and Grayscale keep buying Bitcoin. More and more, people in the market are calling this a structural supply squeeze, where big institutions take up available liquidity faster than new coins are mined. For instance, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) holds over $52 billion as of February 7.
Earlier this week, Strategy CEO Phong Le asked market participants to “hold on” as Bitcoin could hit the $1 million per coin threshold in as few as seven years. Le also mentioned he is not too worried about any drawdowns.
Read also: Ethereum’s Drop Below $2,000 Leaves BitMine Facing Nearly $8 Billion In Paper Losses
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