I had a realization while looking at some altcoins that I want to buy next week, and couldn't do it in USD, try as I might ... between KYC/AML restrictions that had to be jumped through but tech not working, and my bank not recognizing certain services, there was no way but to find those pairs in Ethereum and go from there. The delay was providential, though; I found some better options, so that will work out well. But to get out of them, I will likely have to go back through Ethereum, and from there to USD ... the USD price of Ethereum at that time makes no difference.
Upon coming back to look at Bitcoin with this in mind as it approached the present all-time high of $111,814, I realized ... that number isn't real any more in the sense of being what to look at to determine what to do with Bitcoin. Subconsciously I've known that ... my first Bitcoin has been with me a long time now... not a lot of it ... but I cried when I looked back at younger me thinking, "If Bitcoin ever reaches $100K, this will be worth X ... will I ever see it?"
I had a bout of severe illness that snuck up on me in January -- I didn't have to live to see Bitcoin get back across $100K this spring, and that was part of the recent emotion.
But the difference with more mature me is that I realize: there's no point in selling Bitcoin right now for USD, and there may never be.
I am a long-term swing trader by inclination and habit; the first plan was to of course sell Bitcoin with just about everything else and buy it back at the bottom of the market. ... but I have recently learned that with all the companies and governments trying to buy up all the Bitcoin they can, getting actual Bitcoin is likely to get extremely difficult in the coming years.
It does matter what the all-time high is to the extent that the number in USD is soon going to be at a level that convinces ordinary people that they can't get to it, and that's not counting whether governments who favor the traditional financial system will eventually decide, "That looks like something only accredited investors who are already rich should be able to play in directly." We're not there yet, but we could get there in a few years.
So, that leads to the idea of a new plan ... get good at picking altcoins that do well in USD for USD needs, and keep track of the altcoin pairs that do well against Bitcoin to get more Bitcoin that way without reference to the USD price, while the getting is good at the end of this bull run.
Which also reminds me of another issue I'm having in the world of crypto education ... even in USD terms, folks really do not get it, so there's no way ... but, that rant will wait for tomorrow ...