Viewpoints in the article present diverse opinions and do not represent the position of “WEB3+”.
Which currency has the largest scale: New Taiwan Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar, or Bitcoin?
Yesterday, I discussed “Financial Freedom Liberalism” at Taipei Tech University, starting with a few questions for the students to share with everyone.
Is saving a hundred New Taiwan Dollars a day considered saving or investing?
How about saving a hundred Hong Kong Dollars a day? Saving or investing?
And what about saving a hundred US Dollars a day?
How about Japanese Yen, Turkish Lira, Gold, or Bitcoin?
I have mentioned more than once that when I was young, I was resistant to investing, thinking that investing was just about buying low and selling high without creating anything. Even today, many people around me emphasize that they only save and do not invest. However, if your answers to the questions above involve both saving and investing, on what basis do you draw the line between the two? How does “good” saving quietly transform into “evil” investing?
Life is not a public exam, so I cannot provide absolute or standard answers. However, through this week’s newsletter, you will gain a new perspective on things that the government will never teach the people.
Viewing Earth from Space: FiatMarketCap
Unless you are from the ancient tomb sect, you must have heard of the term “market capitalization.” Market capitalization is usually applied to companies, and those familiar with the US stock market know that the largest companies globally are currently Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, with their positions changing as stock prices fluctuate. As for the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, readers should be more informed. The top two spots have always been held by Bitcoin and Ethereum, with XRP recently surpassing USDT due to the new policies of the US government.
Interestingly, few people pay attention to the “market capitalization” of fiat currencies, nor do they compare the market capitalizations of stocks, cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and other assets. This is because fiat currencies are the absolute benchmark that most people measure prices and even values by. Only when we are able to view things from a cosmic perspective can we realize that the masses of Earth, the Moon, and the Sun are all comparable.
Last month, before Bitcoin broke the ten-thousand-pound barrier, an event of significant importance occurred:
Bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeded that of the New Taiwan Dollar (broad money supply, M2).
Yes, while most Taiwanese people still do not understand Bitcoin, and a small portion of those who do consider saving New Taiwan Dollars as saving and saving Bitcoin as investing, the market capitalization of Bitcoin has already surpassed that of the New Taiwan Dollar.
Of course, market capitalization does not represent everything. Broad money supply is just one of the many indicators of economic scale, but it is still an important indicator.
Moreover, think about it: out of over two hundred countries worldwide, which currency do more countries accept, the New Taiwan Dollar or Bitcoin? Even considering liquidity, Bitcoin does not pale in comparison to the New Taiwan Dollar.
You can check the ranking of company market capitalizations on financial websites like Google Finance, check cryptocurrency market capitalizations on platforms like CoinMarketCap (or CoinGecko, which I recommend), and for the “market capitalization” of fiat currencies, there is a little-known website appropriately named FiatMarketCap.
FiatMarketCap not only compiles data on various national currencies but also considers Bitcoin and measures prices in terms of Bitcoin. For example, the market capitalization of the Chinese Yuan is 400 million BTC, approximately 20 times that of Bitcoin’s market capitalization, with 1 CNY being equivalent to 130 sats (the smallest unit of Bitcoin).
In traditional terms, cryptocurrencies can be divided into very small units. However, with Bitcoin’s increasing value, FiatMarketCap’s statistics show that the smallest unit of currency in twenty-nine countries is equal to or less than 1 sat, including familiar currencies like the South Korean Won, Indonesian Rupiah, and Vietnamese Dong.
Looking at the ranking of national currency market capitalizations, the New Taiwan Dollar with approximately 63,385 billion TWD is no slouch, currently equivalent to 18,514,510 BTC, maintaining its twelfth position after being surpassed. What about the Hong Kong Dollar? True to its status as an international financial center (ruins), its currency’s market capitalization surpasses that of the New Taiwan Dollar and Bitcoin, ranking tenth globally.
However, just a few weeks after the Hong Kong government announced a fiscal deficit of billions, preparing to incur debt, Bitcoin not only surpassed the New Taiwan Dollar but also overtook the Australian Dollar and Brazilian Real. If Bitcoin appreciates against the US Dollar by another ten percent, less than 120,000 pounds, its market capitalization will surpass that of the Hong Kong Dollar.
Rather than saying that it is hard to imagine Bitcoin surpassing 120,000 pounds, it is even harder to imagine it not surpassing it. It is only a matter of time before Bitcoin’s market capitalization surpasses that of the Hong Kong Dollar. It seems I need to finish the newsletter quickly, lest the information becomes outdated before it is published.
Additionally, apart from CoinMarketCap and FiatMarketCap, there is a website called InfiniteMarketCap, which compares the market capitalizations of assets other than fiat currencies. The largest is gold at 18 trillion pounds, followed by Apple at 3.8 trillion pounds, with Bitcoin at 2 trillion pounds ranking seventh. While the traditional world may dismiss Bitcoin as not being real money, it silently surpassed silver, which has a market capitalization of 1.7 trillion pounds and currently ranks tenth.
The question of how high Bitcoin will rise is on everyone’s mind. If we believe that Bitcoin is digital gold, with gold’s market capitalization currently nine times that of Bitcoin, it is a reference point worth considering.
The Most Popular Meme Coin Worldwide
Earlier this month, when Bitcoin surpassed ten thousand dollars, I joked on social media, saying, “Breaking News: The Dollar Falls Below 0.00001 BTC,” eliciting some laughter. However, my statement, advocating for a Bitcoin standard in investment, was made in all seriousness.
For the sake of simplicity, the first half of this article has consistently used the US Dollar as the narrative currency. However, the fact that the US Dollar has fallen below 0.00001 BTC is not a joke but a solid reality.
Let’s take a look at the price trend of a certain meme coin over the past five years:
Believe it or not, anyone would agree that this meme coin is not a good investment product and is even criticized as a “garbage coin.” This meme coin is none other than the USD, which we all invest in or rather, “save.”
The chart above shows the five-year performance of USDT against Bitcoin. I deliberately shortened the time frame to five years to prevent the latter part of the chart from appearing as a horizontal line visually. You might argue that USDT is a stable coin, but all stability in the world is relative.
At the beginning of the article, I asked if saving Turkish Lira every day is considered saving or investing. You might be wondering who would be foolish enough to save a currency that is consistently depreciating every day. The answer is clear: the Turkish people.
And what about those of us who save US Dollars, Hong Kong Dollars, and New Taiwan Dollars every day? Sorry to say, we are just as foolish as the Turks.
The burning question in the title, which currency is the largest: New Taiwan Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar, or Bitcoin, has been answered. As for which one will disappear first, will it be Bitcoin’s encryption algorithm that is first broken by quantum computers, the Hong Kong Dollar becoming another “historical document” after the Sino-British Joint Declaration, or will there be a new New Taiwan Dollar after the current one? That is left for the readers to ponder.
P.S. Last week, I took the sea ferry from North Point to Kwun Tong. A boat that can accommodate 287 people had only 14 passengers on board, and I was the only one on the upper deck, wandering around, taking photos of Victoria Harbour, enjoying the sea breeze and sunlight. These two weeks will see the closure of some small businesses, with Hung Fook Tong Ice House operating until the end of this month and Black Window Store until the end of January. Both places were drifting classrooms that I liked and frequented. Black Window Store even sold flying Buddha, nurturing many newsletters.
Whenever a small business closes, Hong Kong people always express infinite regret, rushing to take photos as they reminisce. But why is it that I hardly see people there during regular times? I can predict that the sea ferry will cease operations, and just before that, Hong Kong people will suddenly cherish it, crowding onto the boat to take photos. Posing as a pseudo-intellectual is not an issue, but isn’t it better to go when there are fewer people, and the entire boat is yours, with no one to bother you even if you take nude photos?