A SECOND AND FINAL EULOGY FOR BITCOIN MAXIMALISM

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

There is a structural parallel between Bitcoin maximalism and 19th-century Millerism: both movements sustain failed predictions through unfalsifiable contingencies ("not yet," "too early") rather than updating their core beliefs after disproof. Bitcoin trades at all-time highs with broad institutional custody and government recognition, but circulates as a regulated store-of-value asset rather than the sovereign payment system maximalists predicted, with Lightning Network failing to achieve mass adoption. The ideology's core contradiction is that Bitcoin's success vindicates a store-of-value thesis maximalists explicitly rejected, while the institutional custody and government recognition they condemned are the developments that drove price appreciation. The ideological death is now irreversible as key proponents age out or abandon the anti-custodian, hyperbitcoinization framework that defined the movement.