Bitcoin would be worth less than $1 without competition from other tokens, says Metallicus CEO and Dogecoin Foundation board member

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Does competition from other tokens help make bitcoin price go up?

While some bitcoin owners are maximalists, vowing to remain loyal to one cryptocurrency, many others see the value in the free crypto market filled to the brim with new tokens.

But how valuable would bitcoin be if the crypto market didn’t have all these other coins “distracting” and taking away from it?

“It would probably be worth less than $1,” Marshall Hayner, CEO and co-founder of Metallicus and board member at The Dogecoin Foundation, said on Talking Tokens.

“There would be no stablecoins for price discovery, there’d be no competition. In an environment without competition and you have a monopoly why would anyone [get in]?”

Bitcoin would have never taken off, Hayner added.

Take Dogecoin (DOGE) for example, something that once started as a joke but has since become the OG dog-focused memecoin.

When Dogecoin launched in late 2013, the crypto market was in a “depressive cycle,” Hayner said, but Dogecoin brought in young people who “vibed” with the communities sense of humor and rejuvenated the space.

Fast forward over a decade later and Dogecoin has a market cap of about $16.15 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $1 billion.

Of course, other dog-and-meme-focused cryptocurrencies have launched since then, but those have also grown the space and overall market cap.

“Imagine if all our businesses were monopolies, they would all suck,” Hayner said. “They would never have to innovate or compete. So in a thriving business environment and thriving economy — and crypto is an economy — you have to have competition.”

Competition has “heated everything up,” he added. “That is what has made bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies valuable, it’s competition and ability to thrive in one of the fastest moving areas in technology.”

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Thursday episode, I sat down with Marshall Hayner, CEO and co-founder of Metallicus and board member at The Dogecoin Foundation. 

We talk about his journey into the crypto space over a decade ago, why he launched Metallicus and its banking-focused layer-2 blockchain Metal and his role at the Dogecoin Foundation and the growth of Dogecoin and memecoins in general.

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• Aptos Foundation’s Aave V3 proposal could expand EVM developers’ capabilities

• Mint launches L2 blockchain on public mainnet, built on the OP Stack

• Base’s Onchain Summer Buildathon brought in over 5,000 builders, creating 1,255 on its chain, its creator Jesse Pollak said on X

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap decreased 4% in the past 24-hours to $2.14 trillion. It is down 5.3% over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken prior to publication on Thursday morning EST.

Other numbers we’re eyeing…

• $737.6M in bitcoin — that’s how much money the US and German governments have sent to exchanges in the past 2 weeks, according to a new report 

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. Sentient raised $85M in a seed round to build a community-owned AI ecosystem and research organization

2. Prodia Labs raised $15M in a seed round led by Dragonfly to improve distributed cloud computing through AI

3. Chad Hugghins joined Sei Foundation to help lead its marketing team

4. Nick Beattie joined Polymarket as its head of product engineering

5. Astria raised $12.5M in a strategic round to build a decentralized sequencing layer for its new layer-1 blockchain

6. Stablecoin Issuer Paxos Names Lim Executive Director in Singapore (Bloomberg)

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. What Bitcoin and the American Dream Have in Common (CoinDesk)

2. Crypto VC funding surges to $3.2bn — here’s where investors are piling in (DL News)

3. Pump.fun surpasses the Ethereum network in terms of daily revenue (The Block)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.