huge part of the current supply of bitcoin is blocked due to different reasons.
the main two /three/ are:
- The HODLers /including me/
- LOST keys/passwords
- Satoshi's stash /can belong to both above/
The rest in circulation is just a tiny amount of the total supply. The miners are the ones that are keeping the market alive, paying for new hardware, electricity, loans etc.
I think we have to find a way to change this trend, put a stick in the wheel to escape this closed circle.
I agree. The problem being that if Bitcoin was used massively for "circulation" in the current development state, transaction fees would skyrocket again. The only exception being to use centralized exchanges/trading even more. Then we had more money for "price discovery", but also more risky deposits at centralized "single points of failure".
And I will always sustain the opinion that for true price discovery Bitcoin must be traded more against goods and services, not only against other (fiat and crypto-) currencies. A factor contributing to the stability of fiat currencies is that people associate products with concrete prices. For example, if we reached the point that "a bread must cost between 0.0001 and 0.0002 BTC and a car between 1 and 3 BTC" then we'd done a step ahead in this sense.
But first we probably need a scalability solution, like LN or (or better: and) sidechains.