These articles drive me nuts - they are manifestly hit pieces. Yes, at $16B, Bitcoin total value pales against broad money of the globe. What these news articles lie about by omission is that the same CIA list they are using for the global broad money figures puts a $16B broad money value as slightly above half of all central-bank currencies in money supply - #95.5 out of 193 (or 194 including this Bitcoin interloper).
(BTW, it is currently $16,860M - or #93.5 in rank)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2215rank.htmlWhen do they flip from worried enough to spout disinfo to outright panicked? When we hit #67 in rank? Larger than 2/3 of central bank currencies?
Some users should drive you nuts here as well
And I certainly don't mean myself since I tell folks here basically the same when they start claiming that Bitcoin doesn't cut it as a global currency or currency at all against fiat in terms of money supply. They seem to be completely forgetting that fiat is an abstract concept and in real life there are dozens if not hundreds of fiat currencies out there. And while Bitcoin is tiny when compared to the US dollar or Chinese Yuan, it is still big enough if we compare it with the rest of fiat currencies