What if Bitcoin’s price surges beyond the 2013 record high reaching $10,000 a coin like Tim Draper predicts? Would you pay off your student debts? Start a Bitcoin business? Buy a Bentley? Bitcoin.com decided to run an experiment to see what some enthusiasts would do if the price hit five digits.
By Jamie Redman
What Would You Do If BTC Hits 10K?
Beginning back in October of 2013 and throughout the holiday months, Bitcoin had increased in fiat value exponentially climbing to $1,200 USD per BTC. But what would Bitcoin users do this time around if the price skyrockets like some experts predict? I asked an open question across my social media network (Facebook, G+) to find out what they’d do if Bitcoin’s price hit $10,000 USD.
Here’s what some cryptocurrency enthusiasts revealed…
Bitcoin Enthusiasts Respond
[Note: Respondent’s last names were omitted to protect their identity]
“If it were a gradual increase, I would not sell. In 10 years, they could be worth a million each. What’s the point of investing if you don’t truly believe you are putting money into something with significant potential? I’d hold onto my Bitcoins until I had evidence that the technology may not fly in the mainstream.” — Brenda, Bitcoin enthusiast
“That’s not an easy question to answer. At all. If I had a solid reason to believe that Bitcoin would STAY at $10,000, then I’d keep my BTC and possibly spend some of it as I go (I use BTC for a small portion of online purchases). On the other hand, if it just randomly jumped to $10,000, I’d sell in a heartbeat and put the money earned away in savings / pay off debts.” — Nic, Bitcoin enthusiast
“If Bitcoin hit $10,000 per BTC I would keep it in the blockchain and hopefully never touch fiat again! That’s the holy grail of Bitcoin to me […]”
— Tim, Bitcoin Enthusiast
“I would withdraw the initial investment amount in EUR and keep the rest.. use investment money to get more BTC / interesting altcoins. Then try to use new-found BTC riches on daily basis as much as I could to help BTC growth.” — Antonio, Bitcoinenthusiast
“I would sell and invest my earnings like many of the entrepreneurs in this space. My investments would be strictly peer-to-peer, decentralized, and open source projects that would bolster a better tomorrow. All of these concepts I would use in a counter-economic fashion to spread more autonomy and less statism.” — Kasumi, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I’d like to think I could write something terribly clever and oh-so visionary about the boundless frontiers $10,000 Bitcoin offers. But the reality is that if Bitcoin reached $10K in the next 3 to 6 months either fiat has collapsed and the world’s financial system has just gone into freefall meltdown (and PM’s & other ‘hard’ but reasonably exchangeable assets would also be skyrocketing but there’d be more problems than can be imagined) OR something else has caused a flurry of buying activity the likes of which make Nov 2013 look tame. That latter situation says BUBBLE (definitely in all caps with a shiny zing running through it) so I’d be selling all my BTC and awaiting the almost certain price collapse.” — Philip, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I would take what I need short term in fiat and then spend a bit on alts, gold and silver.”
— Stephen, Bitcoin Enthusiast
“I suppose it also depends on the strength of your local currency. I personally feel that Bitcoin is safer than most fiat currencies so would get a xapo card and enjoy spending against the deteriorating Rand.” — John, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I will hold it as bitcoin. I may put 10% into bitgold and then order some gold cubes for delivery. If I need to spend it, I will do so with XAPO debit card until something better arrives… such as PLUTUS or some other App. Exciting times ahead.” — Jeremy, Bitcoin Enthusiast
“Cash out, and wait for a deep or correction price and try to buy later at a lower price, swing trader.” — Juan Carlos, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I’d buy some cash generating real estate in a tax haven country so I could get another passport and not have to worry about the ‘democratic socialists’ voting to steal all my property from me.” — Joby, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I would laugh at everyone who laughed at me. And no I would not cash out. Might buy more stuff on OpenBazaar or Purse but I would still be a ways away from retiring. Hopefully, at that point, I can get paid in Bitcoin and not have to continue to buy it.” — Karl, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I would be very happy because it indicated that an order of magnitude or more of people are aware of Bitcoin, are using it, and the value generated would vastly exceed the mere gain that the increase in the exchange rate implies. Bitcoin is a superior resource allocation mechanism that we have just started to explore, and we need many more smart ideas on what are its implications, to be implemented, tested, and perfected.
We are at the very beginning of this change. Those who complain of “being late” are as if people said that the opportunity represented by the Internet was gone because they missed Netscape’s IPO in 1994. The symbolic meaning of a nice round number in base ten is entirely psychological and we are conditioned to overreact to it. I hope that many people would realize by the time Bitcoin gets to $10K that it is definitely here to stay. Maybe there will be more articles about the “death of Bitcoin”, but I am pretty sure that at that point there will be many celebrating the ‘triumph of Bitcoin’.” And, to go back to the beginning, apart from being happy I wouldn’t especially do anything different than today: I’d buy, accumulate, spend Bitcoin as needed, according to the products, services, ideas, investment opportunities that present themselves. — David, Bitcoin enthusiast
“There is a saying in investment: ‘Cut your losses short and let your winners run.’ Very hard to do though it goes against our instincts. If it ran up that quickly, I think I would consider selling half and then using technical analysis to buy back in when it was again oversold on the charts.” — Brian, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I would cash-out ten coins and then go on a one year vacation.” — Andy, Bitcoin enthusiast
“Definitely HODL. I would buy some stuff with my Bitcoin but I would refuse to use Euros.”
— Sarah, Bitcoin Enthusiast
“I like the Bitcoin revolution taking place. So if it were suddenly at 10,000, a pop then wouldn’t that ring alarm bells? So If I was sitting pretty at that rate to continue trading, then I would open up a business/organisation that would start to loan out a bitcoin-funded autonomous economy. Bitcoin enthusiast.” — Thomas, Bitcoin enthusiast
“I would be selling some and move proceeds into an investment class or stock sector that has been the worst performer among all stock sectors and investment classes. I would take some as cash to cover the cost of my initial Bitcoin principle. And I would keep the remainder in Bitcoin. So if it crashes back to $1000 it would be no deal. I would still be ahead and the investment asset class I moved a good amount to would spring back.” — Bill, Bitcoin enthusiast
“There is no ‘cashing out’ from my standpoint. This is about exiting the Federal Reserve note based system. I always ask gold bugs about their exit strategy and they never answer me. If one ounce of gold traded for $10,000 would you cash out? If so why would you want FRN if you need $10,000 to obtain one ounce of a shiny metal? To your original question – I might spend some if I had a need to but essentially I would do nothing. For me this is about what is real money and what is Private Credit and which will preserve and enhance my purchasing power parity over time.” — David, Bitcoin enthusiast
If Bitcoin were to hit $10,000 per coin it would definitely be an event people would remember. Some people believe this number will eventually come and the price per bitcoin could also reach the millions. No doubt there would be a lot of people selling at these prices and phases of adoption would continually shift. One thing is for sure Bitcoin enthusiasts believe in the cryptocurrency and most plan on “hodling” for the expected long-term gains!