Mainstream media has declared Bitcoin “dead” only seven times in 2023, its lowest frequency in ten years, according to a Bitcoin obituaries tracker.
The data comes from 99bitcoins’ BTC obituaries tracker, shared by industry expert Jameson Lopp on Dec. 20 on Crypto X (Twitter). It found that Bitcoin has been declared “dead” 474 times since 2010.
However, the data shows there were only seven ‘deaths’ recorded in 2023 so far, with the most recent in when Bitcoin bull and billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya declared “Crypto is dead in America” during an April 22 episode of the All-In podcast.
However, Palihapitiya appears to be talking in the context of regulatory over-reach,
Chamath Palihapitiya declares "crypto is dead in America." Source: All-in.
The firm said it adds Bitcoin obituaries if the media content explicitly claims BTC is or will be worthless, and only if the content was produced by a “person with a notable following or a site with substantial traffic.”
Moreover, the firm found more than half of this year’s obituaries came in January — near the depths of crypto winter — and just two months after the catastrophic collapse of FTX when BTC was struggling to break above $17,000.
Bitcoin Obituaries Source: X/@lopp
Interestingly, 2017 was the year with the most Bitcoin obituaries at 124, despite the year seeing Bitcoin reaching its all-time high. BTC prices gained 1,900% that year with the asset surging to an all-time high at the time of $20,000 in December.
The third highest number of so-called Bitcoin deaths was in 2021, another cycle peak year in which the asset gained 138% to reach an all-time high of $69,000 in November.
Professional trader ‘Oliver L. Velez’ observed the bell-shaped curve and falling trend, commenting on X:
“In two to three more cycles (each cycle is 4 years), there will be no Bitcoin obituaries. At that time saying BTC is going to die will be as silly as saying "air" is going to fail. We are trending there.”
Related: Bitcoin’s many deaths: Is crypto market past ‘point of no return?’
Bitcoin is not the only crypto asset to occasionally be pronounced dead. Ethereum is not getting much love at the moment, with certain critics calling for ETH deaths have been appearing on crypto social media.
Ethereum advocate Anthony Sassano, however, said he’s responding to the “death of ETH party” on Dec. 21 by buying more of the asset.
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