I thought that was obvious.
However, my two points are still unchallenged...
(1) How do the markets place a value on one Bitcoin when no one knows how many BTC are - or will be - in circulation?
(2) Since no clear legal standards of BTC ownership have been established by the Courts, how will future ownership disputes be resolved?
Until the Crypto Crowd solves those two riddles, the value of BTC will be a speculative guessing game.
I see your point(s). The valuation is going to eventually be set by the ETFs, which may have already happened via the motheds they have together taken to take turns buying so as to keep the lid on price. This was an eye opener when the EFTs were observed taking different day and repeating the same purchases - they all seemed to work together by unspoken agreement to not drive up the price.
The issue of what actually exists will be like the 1909 vbd Lincoln Penny. There are only so many. Will a bag of a thousand of these destroy the price or will they remain high due to investor demand.
The ETFs have run up the price. The USG awarded them for the participation in the Ukraine project and anticipated losses. BTC is initially going to have to soften the writeoffs in Ukraine. After that, and when the market is down to what only the miners can product, the discovery of a million on a hard dirve will probably only result in a whatever OTC or a Coinbase or Crypto.com simply selling them to new demand - those who hold the biggest bags will want to keep their bags the biggest. The value might only temporarily drop but those who own the big EFTs will dictate that the valuation by scrambeling to acquire more of them.
Even if the actual amount turns out to be 22M or 17M it will be set by the ETFs and then it will be down to the top handful who are the biggest.
The value of BTC will allow them to make loans and further increase the value of their BTC.
The reason for the price now is simply a matter of acceptance which has occurred.
The way it is taxed has settled the ownership issue in the US.