Viewpoint articles present diverse opinions and do not represent the position of “WEB3+”.
Which currency has the largest market cap: TWD, HKD, or BTC?
Yesterday, I discussed “financial freedom liberalism” at Taipei Tech University and posed a few questions to students for discussion on sustainability and sharing with everyone.
Is saving NT$100 a day considered saving or investing?
What about saving HKD equivalent to NT$100 a day, is that saving or investing?
And what about saving USD equivalent to NT$100 a day?
How about JPY, TRY, gold, or Bitcoin?
I have mentioned more than once that when I was young, I resisted investing, thinking that investing meant buying low and selling high without producing anything. Even today, I still see many people around me emphasizing only saving and not investing. However, if your answers to the above series of questions include saving for some and investing for others, what criteria do you use to draw the line between the two? How does “good” saving quietly turn into “evil” investing?
Life is not a public examination, so I cannot provide absolute or standard answers. However, through this week’s report, you will gain a whole new perspective to think about things that governments will never teach their people.
Viewing Earth from Space: FiatMarketCap
Unless you are from an ancient tomb sect, you must have heard of the term “market capitalization” (marketcap). Market cap is usually applied to companies, and those who pay attention to the US stock market know that currently, the largest companies globally by market cap are Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, with their positions changing as stock prices fluctuate. As for the market cap of cryptocurrencies, readers should be more familiar. Bitcoin and Ethereum have consistently held the top two spots, with XRP recently surpassing USDT due to new US government policies.
Interestingly, few people pay attention to the “market cap” of fiat currencies, nor do they often compare the market caps of stocks, cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and other assets. This is because fiat currencies are the sole basis by which most people measure prices or even values, an absolute existence. Only when we understand from a distant viewpoint in space can we realize that the masses of Earth, the Moon, and the Sun are all comparable.
Before Bitcoin broke the NT$100,000 mark last month, an event of great significance occurred:
Bitcoin’s market cap exceeded that of the New Taiwan Dollar (broad money supply, M2).
Yes, while most Taiwanese still do not understand Bitcoin, and a small minority consider saving NT dollars as saving and saving Bitcoin as investing, the market cap of Bitcoin has already surpassed that of the NT dollar.
Of course, market cap does not represent everything; the broad money supply is just one of many indicators of economic scale, but it is an important one.
Furthermore, consider this: among more than 200 countries globally, which currency is accepted by more, the NT dollar or Bitcoin? Even when considering liquidity, Bitcoin does not pale in comparison to the NT dollar.
To check the market cap rankings of companies, you can use financial websites like Google Finance. To check the market cap of cryptocurrencies, most people use CoinMarketCap, but I recommend CoinGecko. As for the “market cap” of fiat currencies, there is a lesser-known website aptly named FiatMarketCap.
FiatMarketCap not only compiles data on various national currencies but also includes Bitcoin in its calculations, measuring prices in terms of Bitcoin. For example, the market cap of the Chinese Yuan is 400 million BTC, approximately 20 times the market cap of Bitcoin, with 1 CNY equivalent to 130 satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin).
In the traditional sense, cryptocurrencies can be divided into very small fractions. However, as Bitcoin continues to rise, FiatMarketCap’s statistics show that the smallest unit of currency in 29 countries is equal to or less than 1 satoshi, including the South Korean Won, Indonesian Rupiah, and Vietnamese Dong, among others.
Looking at the market cap rankings of various national currencies, the NT dollar is not far behind at around 63,385 billion TWD, with the current price equivalent to 18,514,510 BTC, ranking twelfth, remaining at the same position as before if we ignore Bitcoin and only consider fiat currencies.
And what about the Hong Kong Dollar? As an international financial center (in ruins), its currency has a larger market cap than the NT dollar and Bitcoin, ranking tenth globally.
However, while the Hong Kong government announced a budget deficit of billions, resorting to borrowing to make ends meet, in just a few weeks, Bitcoin has not only surpassed the NT dollar but has also overtaken the Australian Dollar and Brazilian Real. If Bitcoin were to rise by another 10% against the USD, to less than 120,000 HKD, its market cap would exceed that of the Hong Kong Dollar.
Rather than saying that it is hard to imagine Bitcoin surpassing 120,000 HKD, it is even harder to imagine it not surpassing it. It is only a matter of time before Bitcoin’s market cap exceeds that of the Hong Kong Dollar. It seems I need to finish this report quickly; otherwise, the data will become outdated even before it is published.
On a side note, besides CoinMarketCap and FiatMarketCap, there is a website called InfiniteMarketCap, which compares the market caps of assets other than fiat currencies. The largest market cap is held by gold at 18 trillion (USD equivalent), followed by Apple at 3.8 trillion, with Bitcoin at 2 trillion ranking seventh. Just when the traditional world looks down on Bitcoin as not being real money, it silently surpasses the market cap of silver, currently at 1.7 trillion and ranking tenth.
How high Bitcoin will rise is a question on everyone’s mind. If we believe that Bitcoin is digital gold, with the current market cap of gold being nine times that of Bitcoin, it is a reference point worth considering.
The Most Popular Meme Coin Globally
Earlier this month, when Bitcoin broke the $100,000 mark against the USD, I made a statement on social media saying, “Alice News Flash: USD falls below 0.00001 BTC,” which garnered some laughs. However, I was only one part joking and nine parts serious. No, I am serious about adopting a Bitcoin standard in the investment field.
For the sake of simplicity, the first half of this article has consistently used the USD as the narrative standard. However, the fact that the USD has fallen below 0.00001 BTC is not a joke but a solid reality.
Now, let’s look at the price trend of a certain meme coin over the past five years:
Everyone would agree that this meme coin is not a good investment product, and some might even criticize it as a garbage coin. This meme coin is none other than the USD, the investment, or rather, “savings” of you, me, and most people.
The chart above shows the performance of USDT against Bitcoin over the past five years. I intentionally shortened the timeframe to five years to prevent the latter part of the chart from visually becoming a horizontal line. You may say, isn’t USDT a stablecoin? All forms of stability in this world are relative.
At the beginning of the article, I asked whether saving Turkish Lira every day was considered saving or investing. You may have wondered who would be foolish enough to save a currency that is continuously devaluing. The answer is clear: the Turkish people.
And what about those of us who save USD, HKD, or TWD every day? Sorry, it’s just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The burning question in the title, which currency is the largest: TWD, HKD, or BTC, has been answered. As for who will disappear first, will it be Bitcoin’s encryption algorithm succumbing to a quantum computer attack, the Hong Kong Dollar becoming another “historical document” after the Sino-British Joint Declaration, or a new new Taiwan Dollar emerging after the current one? That is left for readers to ponder.
P.S. Last week, I took the ferry from North Point to Kwun Tong. The boat, which can carry 287 passengers, only had 14 passengers on board, and I was the only one on the upper deck. It was a leisurely time walking around the deck, taking in the Victoria Harbour view, enjoying the sea breeze and sun. These next two weeks will see more small businesses closing down, such as Hung Wan Ice Cream Shop until the end of this month and Black Window until late January. Both were places I liked and frequented, especially Black Window, which sells flying Buddhas and has nurtured many weekly reports.
Whenever a small business closes, Hong Kong people always express infinite regret and run to take a photo, reminiscing. However, why is it that I rarely see people there otherwise? I can foresee the ferry service stopping, and just before that happens, Hong Kong people will suddenly cherish it, crowding onto the boat to take pictures. Posing as a fake intellectual is not a problem, but wouldn’t it be better to go when there are fewer people so that the whole boat is yours, and you can take photos without anyone bothering you?
