bitcoin really isnt crypto anymore. Its just…bitcoin.

Of course the title is a figure of speech…but I've been thinking about why Bitcoin sits at the top while lots of other coins fight for scraps. Its not just first mover advantage or brand recognition. theres something fundamentaly different in how its built.

Btc has 21 million coins…thats it…The number never changes. every four years the rate of new bitcoins drops in half (just happened in April 2024, went from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block)

compare that to almost every other crypto. Eth literally burned fees to reduce supply, then switched their whole system to proof of stake…those are MASSIVE changes. With btc..You'd need basically everyone running a node to agree, which almost never happens. So investors can actually predict supply years ahead

btc uses proof of work, where miners spend electricity to add new blocks under simple, unchangeable rules which are designed that way to minimize risk and keep the system secure. in contrast Eth and others use proof of stake, where coins are locked instead of energy being spent, allowing faster upgrades like eth’s Merge in 2022, withdrawals in 2023, and lower data costs in 2024

the SEC approved spot btc ETFs in Jan 2024.. which means btc started trading on big exchanges like NYSE Nasdaq and CBOE…right next to regular stocks. now pension funds and even your financial advisor can add it to portfolios. By the end of 2024, options on those btc ETFs got approved too, so big investors can manage risk just like they do with traditional assets. regulators officially treat btc like a commodity, tracking its money flows the same way they track gold or oil…it’s basically got its own special lane in traditional finance

while other cryptos are trying to be tech platforms with features and upgrades and governance tokens… btc just focuses on being money. Predictable supply, conservative changes, simple security model, institutional infrastructure.

the market cap dominance isnt an accident. Btc spent 15+ years proving it wont randomly change the rules. That credibility is really hard to build and basically impossible to fake and with btc becoming this deeply integrated into traditional finance, tax compliance is part of the game now too. tools like Awaken.Tax help both individuals and institutions automatically track gains from btc ETFs, trades, or transfers keeping investors compliant without the headache.

bitcoin really isnt crypto anymore. Its just… bitcoin.