Why Paying $85,000 for a Bitcoin Feels Cheaper Than $2 for an Altcoin

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Samson Mow, who apparently spends his free time decoding the magic tricks of cryptocurrency, wants you to know something groundbreaking: you’re being duped. Not by hackers or government conspiracies, but by your own brain. Specifically, a sneaky little phenomenon called “unit bias,” which convinces fresh crypto investors that buying one whole coin of something “cheap” is smarter than fractional pieces of Bitcoin—because hey, whole numbers feel better than decimals, right? 🙃

Cheap Altcoins: The Dollar Store of Crypto

Mow, CEO of Jan3 and crypto Sherlock Holmes, points out that most newbies look at altcoins like they’re shopping the bargain bin just because they cost less per coin. “XRP is *only* $2,” he says with mock awe, “but Bitcoin costs a whopping $85,000! Clearly, XRP is where the money’s at.” (Spoiler alert: it’s not.)

He explains that altcoin sellers cleverly flood the market with so many tokens to exploit this unit bias, so buyers can’t quite figure out what they’re really getting —kind of like a blender that looks cheap but turns your smoothie into a sad, separated mess.

Most alts take advantage of unit bias by utilizing a very high supply, so people can’t figure out what they’re buying.

“XRP is *only* $2 but Bitcoin is too expensive at $85,000!”

Unit bias is absolutely destroying the uninitiated.#Bitcoin only.

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) April 19, 2025

In other words: people want to own a full coin of something low-priced rather than a tiny slice of something that, let’s be honest, might just make them rich. Unfortunately, this means many investors are unknowingly playing the financial version of “go fish” with monopoly money.

What If All Cryptos Played by Bitcoin’s Rules?

To prove a point, Mow whipped up a mental math experiment: What if Ethereum and others had the same supply cap as Bitcoin’s strict 21 million coin limit?

Turns out, Ethereum’s price would skyrocket to around $9,200 per coin (a 278,740% increase). XRP? A casual $5,800 per coin. And Solana? A cool $3,400 per coin. Suddenly, those “cheap” altcoins look about as bargain-y as a Gucci handbag at a thrift store. 😏

Those numbers are calculated by taking the market cap of the alts and dividing by 21 million, thus framing their supply in terms of Bitcoin supply.

ETH: $193B market cap / 21M = $9,200

Instead of buying that one twenty-one millionth of Ethereum, you could buy just 0.11 BTC.

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) April 19, 2025

“You can purchase one 21-millionth of the supply of BTC for ~$85,000,” says Mow, “so if you strip out unit bias, there’s no way these altcoins deserve those cheap prices.”

Bitcoin Dominance Chart

Bitcoin: The Unlikely Underdog Still Wearing the Crown

Believe it or not, Bitcoin is holding a firmer grip on the market than the cool kids predicted. Currently dominating about 60% of the cryptocurrency scramble, Bitcoin is basically the reigning prom queen nobody expected to keep their crown so long. 📈

Contrary to some earlier prophetic predictions that capital would flood from Bitcoin into altcoins by now, Mow suggests Bitcoin’s dominance is only going one way: up.

So, in an investing world filled with smoke, mirrors, and high-supply tokens, the lesson might be clear—sometimes you pay more because you’re actually getting more. Or at least that’s what Samson Mow wants to tell the unit bias-riddled masses before they buy one full coin of some altcoin and call it a day.

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2025-04-21 04:16