1.7 PERCENT
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1.7 percent. It's a figure that might go unnoticed in a banker's conversation. A lost decimal point amid billions, one more statistic in the mass of unformed economic data. Yet this percentage is anything but insignificant. It represents Bitcoin's share of the global money supply. Barely a speck of accounting dust, but already a crack in the wall. Because this wall, that of the fiat monopoly, was meant to be flawless. A steel edifice, erected for generations, protected by central banks, armies, laws, and taxes. And yet, a breach has opened.
In its sixteen years of existence, Bitcoin has pierced the concrete of this age-old monopoly. Starting from nothing, it established itself without publicity, without violence, without military conquest. Simply by existing, by holding on, by resisting. It should have been buried in 2011, but it was said it wouldn't survive. It should have been crushed in 2013, and it was compared to a ridiculous bubble. We sniggered in 2017, we trembled in 2021, and by 2025 it already accounts for 1.7 percent of all the money circulating on Earth.
To understand what this number tells us, we must look back at history. For millennia, gold has embodied trust. A brilliant, unalterable, rare metal, it became the ultimate standard. It was found in ancient temples as well as in modern safes. Gold never needed publicity. Its value spoke for itself. It still represents nearly 10 percent of the world's money supply today. Ten percent versus 1.7 percent, the gap seems enormous. But it took millennia for gold to establish itself. Bitcoin hasn't even reached adulthood yet.
The two are similar in their rarity. But where gold is extracted from the bowels of the Earth, Bitcoin is extracted from pure logic. Gold depends on machines and mines, Bitcoin depends on electricity and silicon. Gold is transported by mule, in an armored truck, in guarded cargo. Bitcoin crosses the planet in an instant, slipped into a USB drive or retained in a memorized sentence. Gold can be confiscated by decree. It has happened a thousand times. Bitcoin, on the other hand, escapes all control as soon as its keys are out of reach. It doesn't need a state, no need for a vault, no need for an agreement. Its only strength is its existence.
This 1.7 percent is therefore a greater threat than it appears. Because it proves that the fortress is no longer invincible. State currencies have always relied on a monopoly. We don't use the euro or the dollar because we want to, but because we are forced to. Because taxes, salaries, and official exchanges recognize only them. State money is a weapon. It is an invisible chain that connects every citizen to the central authority.
But for the first time in centuries, this chain has a rival. Bitcoin doesn't ask permission to exist. It doesn't demand political validation. It doesn't apologize. And already, 1.7 percent of the world's money supply circulates in this uncontrollable digital form. It's not enough to overthrow the established order. But it's enough to shatter the illusion of monopoly. Once the breach exists, it never closes.
In a supreme irony, Bitcoin is reacting to the Fed's announcements today just as gold did before it. Jerome Powell speaks, and the price erupts. This might raise a smile. We might think that the protocol has become just another speculative variable in the great global casino. But this reaction actually proves its integration. It is already treated as a reserve asset, sensitive to monetary policy. The difference is that no Powell, no government, no central bank can manipulate its supply. The code is incorruptible. The 21 million bitcoins are engraved like a physical law.
Bitcoin moves slowly. And that's what makes it invincible. Every step seemed ridiculous at the time. In 2011, when it was worth a few cents, no one saw it as anything other than a curiosity. In 2013, when it surpassed a thousand dollars, people cried bubble. In 2017, when it burst into common parlance, they called it a temporary craze. In 2021, when financial institutions began to adopt it, it was declared mainstream and neutralized. And in 2025, it reached 1.7 percent of the global money supply. The slowness belies the revolution. But looking back at the path taken, we understand that each step was a march toward the inevitable.
That's the real question. If it reached 1.7 percent in sixteen years, where will it be in sixteen more? The network effect, the growing distrust of diluted currencies, banking crises, inflation—all of this is working in its favor. Ten percent, twenty percent, maybe more. Imagine a world where one-fifth of the world's currency is represented by an asset that no one can tamper with. On that day, the monetary narrative will have shifted. The backbone of the system will no longer be made of debt-backed paper, but of energy-backed mathematics.
This 1.7 percent is not just a number. It is a symbol. Proof that the impossible has already begun. That a protocol that emerged from nothing, scorned, fought against, and caricatured, is carving its name into history. It needed no laws or canons. Only time and trust.
What central banks fear isn't this 1.7 percent. It's what it heralds. Every adoption, every transaction, every block mined reinforces the idea that the monetary monopoly is no longer absolute. And a cracked monopoly is already doomed. Fiat currencies never collapse for lack of laws, but for lack of belief. When people stop believing in them, they die. And Bitcoin is this seed of alternative belief that is growing, slowly but surely.
A wall may seem indestructible as long as no cracks appear. But as soon as a single crack appears, confidence disappears. The wall is the same, but it is no longer perceived as solid. This is exactly what this 1.7 percent embodies. The old monetary order still stands, but it is no longer indisputable.
Bitcoin doesn't need to be in the majority to win. Its mere existence is enough. It just needs to inspire, to offer an escape, to remind everyone that an alternative exists. 1.7 percent isn't market share. It's a warning. It's a sign that history has already changed. The whisper before the thunder.
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