Liquidity by itself has an objective and quantifiable value. Bitcoin, and possibly a few other cryptocurrencies, have some unique properties that have intrinsic

Liquidity by itself has an objective and quantifiable value. Bitcoin, and possibly a few other cryptocurrencies, have some unique properties that have intrinsic value, like algorithmic fairness, low transaction costs, logistical simplicity, and lack of centralized control over money supply. BTC has a distinct possibility of becoming the future default Exchange Currency in international currency markets, which basically means that the transaction costs of trading A -> BTC -> B are cheaper than trading A -> B directly. I'd argue that if it were possible to isolate effects from hoarding and speculation, that the spot price would represent the intrinsic value of its liquidity and other intrinsic benefits. And thus, to the degree that prices are not influenced by speculation, the price reflects performance. But since we know that prices are heavily influenced by speculation, I'd argue that the better metric for performance should be daily trading volume. Because that is a more direct measure of liquidity. It might be meaningless by itself (the trading volume doesn't "represent" anything more than the total value that exchanges hands everyday), but contextually it is important. The 24 hour bitcoin trading volume is currently $1.6B. The currency trading volume across all worldwide currencies is $5T [1]. So BTC can roughly be considered to have 3-ish orders of magnitude of difference in liquidity over the worldwide currency market. As someone who has no involvement in BTC whatsoever, I find that pretty impressive. [0] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets-currency-volumes-idUSL5N18E3K3 http://www.reuters.com/article/global-markets-currency-volum...