Bitcoin's been on a tear. We watch as the headlines tout skyrocketing enrollment, and the charts reach new highs. Of course it seems like we’re all getting richer, of course it seems like everyone’s on easy street. Is this really the kind of rising tide that they say lifts all boats? Or is it just another superyacht bon voyage for the 1% while the rest of us still sit disabled on the dock?
Liquidity Tsunami Or Trickle-Down Mirage?
As example of this phenomenon, liquidity would be responsible for 90% of the price action, according to Raoul Pal. Okay, fine. How would you explain liquidity to the average American who can’t afford their next rent check? It can be daunting, because to many, it feels like economists are speaking a whole new language.
Think of it this way: imagine a fancy new water park opens in your town. Global liquidity is the river that nourishes the park’s wave pool. The pitch goes like this — By creating a water park, they’ll get jobs and tourism, and everybody gets fun! What if the entrance fee is prohibitively high, so that the only families able to attend are the wealthiest? What if the construction or operation of the new park dries up the wells of local farmers? That's the question we need to be asking about Bitcoin's surge.
What the news would have us believe, of course, is that global liquidity is driven by increasing the money supply. Great. More money sloshing around. But who actually gets to drink from that firehose? Or, is it the plant owner in Detroit with factory jobs disappearing left and right? Or is it the hedge fund manager in Manhattan who is up against the same stockpiling challenge.
On the ground Mrs. Sharma, who owns a small textile shop in Bangalore. She explained to me how her expenses are increasing, how customers are more reluctant to open their wallets, and how she’s just scraping by on the margin. Bitcoin? That’s for the big kids,” she said, looking tired but enthused. "I'm just trying to feed my family."
Central Banks Printing, Main Street Sinking?
As their usual focus, Michael Howell then points to the Fed, the PBoC, and banks as the spigots of this liquidity. Central banks are really just printing money, and it’s allegedly causing Bitcoin to rise. What about inflation? Unfortunately, every time they print that freshly minted money, it devalues the rupees and dollars in our wallets. It increases the cost of groceries, increases the cost of gas, everything comes up.
It's like this: the central banks are pumping air into a giant balloon (Bitcoin), while simultaneously poking holes in the tires of our cars (Main Street). We're told to be excited about the balloon, but we're stranded on the side of the road.
Mortgage holders, renters and taxpayers the Fed has a painful choice. Should it focus on fighting inflation or acting as a backstop to the troubled financial system? How many of us have served as collateral damage in their high-stakes game? It feels like the rules are rigged. The cycle goes on, the rich get richer, and the rest of us are left to clean up the crumbs.
Bitcoin's Boom: Euphoria or Economic Escape?
Bitcoin halving in 2026, liquidity peaks in 2025… Coincidence or something more interconnected. Here's a shocking thought experiment: What if Bitcoin's surge isn't a sign of economic prosperity, but a symptom of economic anxiety? What if people are running to Bitcoin because they’re scared? They haven’t given up on its future—rather, they may be fleeing from the chaos of today, the unknown.
We are, all of us, in this together looking for safety. They are urgently seeking to escape inflation, precarity of jobs and the new realization that the traditional financial system just isn’t working for them. Yet we are living in a world that is changing ever more rapidly, and ourselves moving more rapidly than any other time in history. The boom is unmistakably a sign of euphoria, but it is a sign of economic escape.
I'm not saying Bitcoin is evil. I'm not saying it's a scam. What I am saying is that we need to be honest about who's really benefiting from this surge, and who's being left behind. We need to ask tough questions about the role of central banks, the impact of inflation, and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.
Maybe Bitcoin does have a bright future. Let’s ensure that future is one that includes Main Street, not just Wall Street. Because if we don’t, that Bitcoin bubble is going to burst, and when it does, the consequences will be catastrophic for us all.
