On July 14th, 2025, Bitcoin broke through a major barrier, reaching $123,000 and setting a fresh all-time high. It was the kind of news that makes people wonder if they’ve already missed the boat.
But if you zoom out, a very different story appears.
Because even at $123K, many experts argue that Bitcoin is still early. Not in price, but in adoption.
Yes, it’s grown into a trillion-dollar asset. But when you compare it to other world-changing technologies, like the Internet, mobile phones, social platforms like Facebook, or services like Google, Bitcoin’s reach is still surprisingly limited.
For context: around 560 million people globally own cryptocurrency today. That’s less than 7% of the world population. By contrast, the Internet reaches over 5.5 billion people. Mobile phones? Nearly 6 billion.
That’s the real gap. And it’s also the real upside.
Because if Bitcoin follows a similar adoption curve as those technologies, the current price might be just a stepping stone, and definitely not the peak.
In this article, I’ll compare how Bitcoin stacks up against the Internet, mobile, Facebook, and Google. I’ll also explore why, despite hitting a new high, it might still be one of the most undervalued innovations on the planet.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $123,000 in July 2025, but still has room to grow based on global adoption metrics.
- Only 6.8% of the world owns crypto, while the Internet and mobile phones reach over 5.5 billion users each.
- Bitcoin’s adoption curve is faster than the Internet’s early growth, yet still lags far behind in user count.
- Compared to Facebook’s 3B+ users and Google’s 8.5B daily searches, Bitcoin is not yet a daily-use technology.
- Network effects suggest that more users = more value, especially given Bitcoin’s fixed supply.
- According to CoinCheckup, Bitcoin could reach $142,500 this cycle based on adoption-based forecasting models.
Table of Contents
Bitcoin VS the Internet: A familiar curve, just getting started
Think back to the early days of the Internet: clunky dial-up connections, strange new acronyms, and a lot of people saying, “This’ll never catch on.”
Fast forward a few decades, and nearly 5.35 billion people (roughly 66% of the global population) are now online.
Bitcoin today sits in a similar phase to where the Internet was in the late 1990s.
As mentioned, there are 560 million crypto users worldwide. That’s just 6.8% of the global population, barely a tenth of the number of people who use the Internet.
Bitcoin accounts for a large chunk of crypto ownership. So we can reasonably say Bitcoin’s reach is still in the early stages, like the Internet before broadband and social media.
But here’s the thing: Bitcoin’s adoption is growing even faster than the early Internet did.
It took crypto about 12 years to reach 300 million users. That’s about 20% faster than the Internet’s growth rate at a similar point in its life cycle.
That kind of momentum suggests something powerful: we may still be in the early innings of Bitcoin’s adoption story. If its trajectory continues to echo the Internet and web services like Google and Facebook (and there’s growing evidence it could), the total number of users could swell into the billions over the next decade.
And if that happens?
Then $123,000 might look cheap.
Bitcoin VS mobile phones: A network still catching up
Mobile phones are everywhere. As of 2024, there are over 5.61 billion mobile users around the world. That’s nearly 70% of the global population. It’s hard to imagine daily life without them.
Now compare that to Bitcoin.
Despite all the media buzz and price action, only about 560 million people own any crypto.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
Mobile phones took over two decades to cross the 300 million user mark. Crypto did it in nearly half the time, just 12 years.
That’s a clear sign of momentum. Still, mobile adoption didn’t just grow steadily. It hit an inflection point, and then it exploded into billions.
Bitcoin hasn’t hit that point yet. But the infrastructure is being laid.
Mobile networks, internet access, and global digital literacy are all far more advanced now than they were in the 1990s or early 2000s. That means Bitcoin doesn’t have to build everything from scratch. It can ride the rails that mobile and internet adoption have already built.
So while Bitcoin is far behind in terms of raw user numbers, the foundation for mass adoption is already here.
And if crypto begins to scale the way mobile phones once did, the upside isn’t only the price. It’s about how integrated Bitcoin could become in everyday life.
Bitcoin VS social media: Still a fraction of Facebook
Social media platforms exploded onto the global stage in the 2000s. And Facebook made the biggest splash. Today, Facebook (now Meta) has over 3 billion monthly active users.
That’s nearly 40% of the world’s population, logging in, scrolling, liking, and posting daily.
Bitcoin? It’s not even close.
Bitcoin’s footprint is still an order of magnitude smaller than that of Facebook. And that’s just a single social media platform.
That stat alone paints a clear picture: Bitcoin might be breaking records in price, but in terms of daily relevance to the average person, it’s still getting warmed up.
Facebook hit 1 billion users within just 8 years of launching. That kind of growth was beyond impressive. It was also exponential. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is well into its second decade and still hasn’t crossed the 1 billion user threshold.
But rather than a red flag, this could be a signal of what’s to come.
Facebook’s value soared as more people joined the network, because every new user made the platform more valuable for everyone else. That’s the network effect in action.
Bitcoin has the same dynamic. As more people use it (whether as a store of value, a payment method, or a hedge against fiat), its utility and perceived value increase.
So while Facebook may be ahead in numbers, Bitcoin could follow a similar path with its own kind of explosive growth.
Bitcoin VS Google: Not yet a daily habit
If there’s any tech company that’s synonymous with global reach, it’s Google.
Every day, Google processes over 8.5 billion searches. It touches nearly every internet user on the planet, often multiple times a day.
Whether it’s email, maps, search, or YouTube, Google is baked into the fabric of daily digital life. And for most people, life today is digital life.
Now stack that up against Bitcoin.
Bitcoin isn’t something most people use every day. In fact, it isn’t even something most people use at all. The number of Bitcoin users pales in comparison to the billions of daily interactions with Google products.
And that’s not a knock on Bitcoin. It’s a sign of how early we still are.
Think about what Google has going for it: instant access, easy interfaces, seamless mobile integration, and no learning curve.
Bitcoin, by contrast, still comes with friction, including things like:
- Wallet setup
- Seed phrases
- Navigating exchanges
- DeFi
It’s a technology that’s growing fast, but it’s not yet second nature for the average person.
The good news is that it’s changing.
Apps are getting better. User experience is improving. And with more integrations (like fintech platforms and payment processors), Bitcoin is inching closer to real-world utility.
Add in things like Bitcoin ETFs and Lightning Network integrations, and it’s clear that developers and institutions are both working to close that gap.
So while Google represents near-universal adoption, Bitcoin is still climbing the curve. But if it follows even a fraction of Google’s path, its real-world value could rise dramatically.
Bitcoin’s undervalued potential: Network effects and what comes next
So far, we’ve compared Bitcoin with:
- The Internet
- Mobile phones
- Social media
And across every tech comparison, the story is the same: Bitcoin is still behind in adoption. But it’s catching up fast. And that’s exactly why many believe the asset is still significantly undervalued, even after hitting a new all-time high.
The key concept here is network effects.
The more people use a network, the more valuable it becomes. That’s what powered Facebook’s rise. It’s what turned smartphones into an everyday necessity. It’s what could send Bitcoin to entirely new levels. And this isn’t talking about price specifically, but rather utility and cultural relevance.
Right now, less than 7% of the global population owns crypto. That means over 93% of people worldwide have yet to enter the network.
And because Bitcoin has a fixed supply (only 21 million will ever exist), even modest increases in demand can have a big impact on price.
So what could that look like?
To answer that, we turned to the predictive models at CoinCheckup. Their tools analyze crypto cycles using historical data and adoption trends, including comparisons to the Internet and mobile growth curves.
Based on that model, Bitcoin could reach a cycle peak of $142,500.
In other words, even after hitting $123,000 in July 2025, Bitcoin could still have meaningful upside left in this market cycle. And that’s based on the kind of user growth we’ve seen fuel every major technological leap of the past 30 years.
Of course, predictions aren’t guarantees.
But when you layer in network theory, global financial shifts, and tech adoption patterns, the argument is clear: Bitcoin is still early, and the price we’re seeing today may only reflect a fraction of its long-term potential.
The bottom line: Bitcoin in the big picture
Back in December 2024, Bitcoin pulled off what just a few years prior was considered wild dreams. It broke through the $100,000 mark.
And now, barely 6 months later in July 2025, it pulled off another milestone. It went past the $120,000 mark, even reaching $123,000 and setting a new all-time high. But as impressive as that number sounds, it might not be telling the full story.
Because when you step back and look at the bigger picture, and you compare Bitcoin to the Internet, mobile phones, Facebook, and Google, one thing becomes obvious:
We’re still early.
Mobile phones connect nearly 6 billion people. The Internet reaches over 5.5 billion. Facebook has 3 billion monthly users. Google handles 8.5 billion searches every single day.
And Bitcoin?
It’s still hovering around 560 million users globally. It’s just a fraction of those networks. Yet it shares the same viral potential. It’s decentralized, global, and permissionless. It solves a real problem. And it’s growing fast.
That’s why, despite the current price tag, many experts believe Bitcoin is still undervalued relative to the long-term trajectory of tech adoption. And as tools like CoinCheckup’s prediction models suggest, we could see $142,500 or more this cycle.
So yes, Bitcoin made history this year. But based on where it stands next to other world-changing technologies, this could still be only the beginning of the real story.
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