Currently worth $70 Bn, Is this a lot?
Personally it seems quite a lot for a fairly untested currency.
US gold reserves currently worth something like $300Bn, the largest in the world (though it's no clear if anyones checked its there). All this is less than a company like Google but still $70Bn is a lot of money.
For the bitcoin price to rise a lot of money would have to flow in. Right now it seems like every grandma and her dog is being persuaded onto the bitcoin bandwagon. Is this not a sign of an impending crash, in which those at the bottom of the pyramid get burned? Is the bitcoin rise sustainable? Where will the money be flowing in from? Will shops have to start selling bitcoin investment scratch cards over the counter to keep the price rising?
I'm keen to head from people who can make arguments based on fundamental economic principles, either way.
I don't think you should compare bitcoin's market cap with the USA gold reserve or with the GDP of any country. Because bitcoin is not a mainstream currency and the legal status of bitcoin is not clear to majority of the countries. However, 70 USD billion is not a small amount, it is way higher than the GDP of many countries, probably the majority of the countries.
But slowly the picture is changing. While China banned ICO (not bitcoin) and Japan issued a license to a crypto currency exchange. We will see a lot more investment coming in to bitcoin is future. A lot of people are getting interested about bitcoin on a daily basis. If more countries start accepting bitcoin, you just can't imagine the kind of money can flow in to the crypto community. I think the main roadblock is the unclear legal status due to which we can't see many institutional investors here. Once it is legalized and institutional investors start investing in bitcoin, it will have a dream run.