that theory is bogus.
i don't think there is any company in the space who's done more for bitcoin than Bitpay. they've facilitated adoption from the beginning and we wouldn't be nearly as big as we are without them. they were the pioneers in that area. what they facilitated was monetary velocity which is critical for any currency, new or old. it doesn't matter if the merchant wanted Bitpay to sell them immediately. there had to be a buyer anyways and the sales are offloading those coins to new holders that value those coins more highly than the merchants. another way to describe it is liquidity. allowing usage of the coins is important.
it's also great that this firm is holding them. they're helping to close the loop. and this isn't double speak from me. what's important is that aggregate demand is increasing throughout the space.
Ok - i take your point, and it makes sense. that the fact they're increasing liquidity, merchant adoption etc. has accelerated bitcoin infrastructure growth and moved us on. Just last year how many merchants accepted it? Very, very few.
Esp. agree with this: 'it's also great that this firm is holding them. they're helping to close the loop'
& 'what's important is that aggregate demand is increasing throughout the space.'
another way to say this, as i've said before, is that Bitcoin is many different things to many different ppl. it has the ability to satisfy all our needs as hodlers, merchants, or consumers. simultaneously. someone just said in another thread that Bitcoin's "purpose" is to be spent or transacted with. no. for me, right now, it satisfies my wants as a hodler. but for him, it satisfies his wants as a spender. but it can even do both for me too, simultaneous to my wants as a hodler. last Nov, i took one of my friends to a pro basketball game. he's runs a major investment firm and we were talking about Bitcoin. obviously i was trumpeting the merits of hodling the best performing "asset" of the last 5 yrs and how i was hodling. but then, just to make the point, i whipped out my Mycelium cold wallet and showed him how i could spontaneously buy a CPK Gyft card and buy him a salad right then and there just to ram home the point that it is liquid also while simultaneously hodling it.
so it doesn't matter what you're doing with it. the important thing is it's satisfying your wants b/c it's
voluntary. other ppl are seeing that it's voluntary and doesn't force you to feel like you have to spend a withering asset. this increases aggregate demand.