RE: When to Buy in New Era of Cryptocurrency Regulation
Most institutional investors won't invest in Bitcoin as it has no intrinsic value at it's core apart from being the first kid on the block. It's also lacking behind in several aspect that would making it a useful currency. The changes are painfully slow due to lack of consensus within the core developers. Proof of work will also be problem as it requires a certain profitability for miners to have an incentive in maintaining the hashrate of the network.
It will still hold value over time but it won't be much different than collectors items such as post stamps (which could be used as currency once upon a time, believe or not). As soon as you can easily exchange or buy other blockchain tokens without going through bitcoin, we're going to see it lose its feathers.
WRONG. They will invest in bitcoin because it has the least inherent risk. Bitcoin has not scaled yet but it is in he process and it certainly has the capacity to scale. The lighting network is expanding everyday and the block sizes will eventually be increased. The bitcoin core developers don't agree but even still, it is way more likely to succeed than the competition because it is the first kid on the block and the most well known. Proof of work will not be a problem for an extremely long time and by then they will have figured something out. Being the first boy on the block is huge. I would say that bitcoin's only competition is ethereum and cardano atm so they are probably something like a 4% and 3% chance of becoming the international currency, respectively. Here is what institutional investors are thinking about bitcoin : https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/john-pfeffer/An+Investor%27s+Take+on+Cryptoassets+v6.pdf
Also your argument that bitcoin has it's feathers because it is the largest financial gateway makes no sense. That money comes and goes very quickly. Negligible in comparison to the 3 main reasons people buy bitcoin and keep the money in the network : HODL(the largest percentage of bitcoin has been bought for this reason), quick and consistent profits (panic sellers), and lastly to buy bitcoin only to sell it later and make the weak hands get out. The reason that bitcoin prices falling causes alts to go down isn't because of the pairings. It's because the fact of the matter is this : If you dont believe in bitcoin, if the market doesnt believe in bitcoin, then there is no reason to believe in any other cryptoasset.
Myspace was the first kid on the block. Do you use myspace?
Look im not saying that no crypto currency can take over bitcoin's spot. im saying that being the first kid on the block is a huge advantage . Bitcoin is the decentralized, leaderless standard at the moment despite the fact that it is still centralized. I do believe that other currencies can get ahead. For example, If cardano is able to decentralize and implement a treasury model in a reasonable amount of time then maybe they can get ahead but bitcoin still has the best chance as of now. Then it's ethereum, and then it is cardano.
I honestly think Bitcoin will probably have a relatively high value (maybe more or less then the current value) as it finds a niche with block chain collectors much like post stamps.
Other blockchain platforms are already ahead if you take the monetary value out of the equation. This is my opinion, I look at this from technological and utility point of view.
''Cryptotrading'' doesn't interest me in the less. I actually exchanged most of my Bitcoin fund for other blockchain tokens that solve problems. I think that's where something truly as value or not. Blockchain platforms like Cardano, EOS, Ethereum and etc do strive to solve many problems with the technology and the world at large.
Bitcoin is bogged down with many ''cryptotraders'' or miners who can't look past the $$$. Many of the criteria that held value for Bitcoin are slowly being taken over by other currencies or platform. Anonymity, exchange and storage of value have all been improved by other players in the blockchain ecosystem.
Barron's magazine featured a "value investor" Murray Stahl in Nov 2017 on why he bought bitcoin:
https://www.barrons.com/articles/q-a-why-a-value-investor-decided-to-buy-bitcoin-1511810246
Bill Miller boasted about how half of his fund was in bitcoin.
The pressure of keeping up will push other managers to follow these leaders. The big money will necessarily move into Bitcoin and Ethereum because those have the largest network effects and brand name.