RE: Is Bitcoin becoming irrelevant?
I haven't really put a lot of thought into this or heard views either way, so I'm just going off of a gut feeling on this specific question.
People are irrational and I believe that most don't even think about tax implications and some of those are probably not even aware of their existence.
If Bitcoin started nosediving, yes I think the majority of small hodlers would sell into fiat instead of altcoins or hodling BTC for the ride.
I would assume a 50/25/25 split on medium hodlers, just for safety since I'm guessing. 50% would hodl, 25% would hedge into altcoins, 25% would buy USD ... all depending upon how big a dive in price we're talking about and the bigger the dive, the more those percentages would change.
You, I and most people really into crypto are aware of the IRS situation, but the majority of the people I talk to that are new to crypto are either not aware, don't think it's a big deal, will take their chances or don't really give a shit ... "cuz I got guns" ... lol.
With large hodlers, I will assume most all are going to do the right thing, whatever that is for their situation.
I don't know what the split is or if anyone knows how much of the current supply is owned by large, med, small hodlers, but for shits & giggles I'm going to say the majority of BTC is held by medium players (pick your own #'s, whatever is "medium" to you) and that there are more small players vs whales. But that sounds like a lot of people that could cause a very irrational panic sell into fiat, based off of statistics I've pulled from my ass on the fly.