Latest news with #digitalgold
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
False Choice Between Bitcoin's Store Of Value And Medium Of Exchange
Bitcoin's Store of Value A debate has raged in Bitcoin between its two primary use cases, store of value and medium of exchange. This debate has waged on since its inception, though the contours of the debate have waxed and waned over time. In fact, Satoshi was likely aware of Bitcoin's bottlenecks to scaling, given that the original implementation of off-chain payments using the frequency field of transaction outputs was part of Bitcoin's original design. Payment channels in the Lightning Network eventually became a better way to achieve off-chain payments, and by 2015, the Lightning white paper planted the flag for Bitcoin as a vehicle for payments. In the last four years, however, the narrative has shifted towards Bitcoin as a store of value. At the same time, Bitcoin also had its roots as a form of digital gold, evident from the early connection between Bitcoin and Bitgold. The early conversation on the Bitcoin talk forum certainly makes reference to a digital version of gold, and the miners do the hard work of extending the chain and bringing new Bitcoin into circulation. I saw the debate in sharpest contrast in February at the Presidio Bitcoin launch event, where Jack Dorsey and Michael Saylor gave alternate opinions on this. Dorsey talked persuasively about Bitcoin's utility in the developing world, where reliance on third-party payment providers like Visa and Mastercard imposes real economic costs and infringes on freedom. Bitcoin's high value over time will come from its utility, which is a medium of exchange. Bitcoin still has a long way to go for broad use as payment, and the Bitcoin community can't give up on making real the original vision of the white paper. Saylor offered an equally convincing defense of Bitcoin as a store of value. The vast majority of capital in the world is not used for payments but for storing and preserving value. For Bitcoin to succeed, it must gain market share against the major asset classes (equities, bonds, and real estate). Saylor takes a broader definition of peer in the white paper. A peer need not be an individual, but could be an institution, a bank, a corporation, or a city. Not every person in the world needs to run nodes, but maybe the big institutions do. Just like gold, bitcoin can become the reserve asset of the world and a settlement layer between financial institutions. They both are. I believe Saylor and Dorsey are each advocates for the world as they see it. Saylor and Dorsey are both articulating a vision where they believe the marginal resources and time should be spent. And their views reflect their own backgrounds, with Dorsey emerging from the payment space and Saylor operating in the fiat capital markets. In the short term, there may be a trade-off between these two use cases of Bitcoin, as companies and individuals need to decide how to allocate their own time and resources. But in the long term, there is room for both. The real competition is not between Saylor and Dorsey, but between Saylor plus Dorsey and the rest of the tech industry. That industry is many, many times larger than our little Bitcoin bubble. Maybe I am copping out by saying we don't have to pick between Bitcoin as a store of value and medium of exchange. But really, I'm saying that all use cases of Bitcoin reinforce each other. When the world turns to bitcoin as the best investment, it will naturally want to transact in bitcoin. Similarly, if bitcoin wins the race for the best global payments, that will marginally induce more people to acquire and hold bitcoin. The real opportunity on the technology side is to more deeply integrate Bitcoin with AI. AI agents need deep ways to interact and engage with Bitcoin. We already have AI agents that can pay each other through Lightning invoices. But we need neural networks to trade and negotiate with each other using the kind of higher-dimensional transactions that Taproot was designed for. As for stores of value, AI can help design new custody solutions and more complex, useful tools as the next generation of banks holds bitcoin as their reserve asset. So, I am optimistic. And who knows, once Bitcoin achieves a store of value and medium of exchange, all that's left is the last item on the list, the unit of account.
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Bitcoin Just Hit an All-Time High, but Is the Cryptocurrency a Buy?
What a year it's been for Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) so far. The world's top cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $109,000 in January and then fell to as low as $75,000 in April. Now, it has recovered and just hit a new all-time high of $112,000 on May 22. Unsurprisingly, many investors are confused about where Bitcoin is headed next. Will it continue to soar higher? Or is it overvalued, and ready for another market correction? Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » Is Bitcoin a tech stock or "digital gold"? One reason for all this confusion is that investors don't really know what to make of Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency is confusing enough, and Bitcoin doesn't make it any easier. At times, Bitcoin appears to behave like a high-risk, high-reward tech stock. It currently has a market cap of $2.2 trillion, which is nearly identical to the market caps of Alphabet and Amazon. At other times, though, Bitcoin appears to act like a potential hedge against macroeconomic uncertainty, just like gold. As a result, some investors have started to view Bitcoin as a potential safe haven asset. The ongoing tariff drama has made this dual nature of Bitcoin very obvious. As soon as President Donald Trump announced sweeping, across-the-board tariffs on April 2, Bitcoin sold off, as did most tech stocks. But as Bitcoin began to stabilize, it soon became fashionable to talk about it as "digital gold." In other words, investors started to view Bitcoin -- a digital asset largely unaffected by global trade flows -- as a potential hedge against tariff uncertainty. And that's exactly when Bitcoin began to decouple from the tech market. Tech stocks were still falling, but Bitcoin was rising in value. The "digital gold" investment thesis seemed to make sense. It was obvious that tech companies with significant overseas operations were going to get hit hard by tariffs, but maybe Bitcoin wouldn't. The problem is that you can't have it both ways. Bitcoin can't be both a tech stock and "digital gold," can it? Something just doesn't add up. If markets are bullish, then Bitcoin trades like a tech stock? But if markets are bearish, Bitcoin suddenly undergoes a transformation and trades like gold? To me, that argument sounds a lot like, "Heads I win, tails you lose." Bitcoin's upside potential Interestingly, analysts and investors are starting to present different price forecasts for Bitcoin, based on how they view this asset. In one scenario, Bitcoin trades like a tech stock and is capable of high future returns. This is the Bitcoin we know and love -- the type of digital asset that turned in triple-digit returns in 2023 and 2024, and that has regularly been the top-performing asset in the world. In another scenario, though, Bitcoin trades like gold. It loses some of its characteristic volatility, but it also loses some of its upside potential. Remember: On Wall Street, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You can't have both high upside and low risk at the same time. In late April, investment firm 21Shares issued a report called "From Digital Asset to Safe Haven: Why Is Bitcoin Acting Like Gold?" It suggested that Bitcoin would continue to narrow the performance gap with gold over the remainder of 2025. If you buy into the argument that "digital gold" should perform similarly to physical gold, this makes a lot of sense. But guess what? That thesis also implies that Bitcoin is no longer a digital asset capable of massive, triple-digit returns. Just look at the historical returns for gold. Over the past 15 years, the single best year for gold was 2010, when it returned 27.7%. But the annualized returns for gold are usually much less impressive. They are typically around 10% (over the past 10 or 20 years). Tariff uncertainty is the wild card factor The wild card factor in all this, of course, is tariffs. On May 23, just one day after Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $112,000, President Trump threw sand into the gears of the crypto market. He suggested that 50% tariffs on Europe were incoming. He also suggested that tech companies such as Apple refusing to move operations back to the United States might be facing additional tariffs. As soon as this news came out, Bitcoin immediately declined to $109,000. So, wait, is Bitcoin now a tech stock? It remains to be seen what happens next. But things just got confusing again (President Trump has already delayed the 50% tariffs on Europe). That's the risk of investing in Bitcoin. For short periods, it can behave like "digital gold." But, most of the time, it behaves much more like a high-risk, high-reward tech stock. If you're thinking about investing in Bitcoin now, you need to be comfortable with where you think the tech market is headed in 2025. Should you invest $1,000 in Bitcoin right now? Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $639,271!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $804,688!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is957% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to167%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Dominic Basulto has positions in Amazon and Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
More Americans Now Hold Bitcoin Than Gold, Report Says
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Americans may be leaning towards Bitcoin over gold, according to a report by Bitcoin investment firm River. River boiled down the U.S.'s Bitcoin leanings to access and culture. The U.S. leads on several other key Bitcoin metrics. A generational shift may be occurring in how Americans preserve their wealth. In recent years, several Bitcoin proponents have dubbed the asset 'digital gold,' arguing that it has the qualities to become an even better inflation and currency debasement hedge than the physical precious metal. While Bitcoin has yet to trade like a safe haven asset, Americans may be front-running the narrative, according to one recent report. According to a report by Bitcoin investment firm River on Tuesday, more Americans now hold Bitcoin than gold. The report said that 50 million Americans hold the leading cryptocurrency compared to about 37 million who hold the precious metal, citing data from Bitcoin education-focused entity The Nakamoto Project and Gold IRA Guide. Don't Miss: — no wallets, just price speculation and free paper trading to practice different strategies. Grow your IRA or 401(k) with Crypto – . 'America's story began with sound money. Hard-working Americans saved their wealth in gold-backed money. Today, Bitcoin carries that torch forward,' River said, sharing the data on X. River confirmed to Benzinga that the data on American Bitcoin ownership was based on a Q3 2024 study by The Nakamoto Project. The firm also said the findings aligned with new data from The Nakamoto Project that it was privy to. The Nakamoto Project teased a 2025 Bitcoin adoption report on Monday. The old study surveyed 3,538 adults across several demographics, finding that most American Bitcoin owners were young males. The yet-to-be-released 2025 report surveyed 3,345 respondents, The Nakamoto Project said on Monday. A teaser from the new report suggests that four in five Americans want some U.S. gold reserves converted to Bitcoin, with younger respondents wanting as much as 30% of the reserves converted. Trending: New to crypto? on Coinbase. This finding is significant as the Trump administration is exploring 'budget-neutral' strategies to fund the U.S.'s Bitcoin reserve. Among the most popular ideas that have been floated is revaluation of the nation's gold certificates. The U.S. holds 8,133 tons of gold that were valued at $42 per ounce in 1973. The country could theoretically unlock fresh liquidity by revaluating this stash at current rates of about $3,300 per ounce. But there are concerns that such a move could impact confidence in the dollar and the stability of the gold market. River in its report boiled down the U.S.'s Bitcoin leanings to access and culture, citing favorable regulatory conditions, little barrier to entry and the idealization of individual investing and financial freedom. Beyond the number of Americans holding Bitcoin, River reported that 40% of the cryptocurrency's supply is owned by Americans, the most of any country. The firm also said the U.S. had 94.8% of the market share of corporate Bitcoin holdings, 65.3% of the share of nation-state holdings, 70% of the share of venture funding, 79.2% of the share of Bitcoin ETFs and 36% of the share of the global hash rate. 'Americans are uniquely positioned to further their economic success and global leadership by embracing their current advantage in Bitcoin adoption,' River said. Read Next: A must-have for all crypto enthusiasts: . Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — Image: Shutterstock Send To MSN: 0 This article More Americans Now Hold Bitcoin Than Gold, Report Says originally appeared on
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Bitcoin Truly "Digital Gold"? 3 Ways the Leading Cryptocurrency Diverges From the Most Popular Inflation Hedge
There's a narrative that says Bitcoin is a great hedge against inflation, like gold. It might be true, but the proof behind the claim is a bit lacking. Bitcoin is differentiated from gold in at least three ways. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is, as you may have heard, often called by the catchy moniker "digital gold." But there are a handful of key differences between Bitcoin and real gold, which has long been used as a store of value and as a hedge against inflation. Here are three of the most important ones to know. For Bitcoin to be an equally good hedge against inflation as buying gold, it needs to maintain its purchasing power in fiat currency over time. That way, as the fiat currency becomes more and more devalued, holders can buy the same amount of goods and services when they decide to convert their coins into fiat. Consider this chart: At first glance, Bitcoin actually looks better than gold over the last five years when it comes to holding value against declining purchasing power denominated in dollars. But this is a bit deceptive. Gold has been in use as a store of value for thousands of years. Its rarity is well established. If you really wanted, you could make a chart of its value over time that would cover a longer period than any of the fiat currencies that currently exist and can be exchanged for it. And that chart would be ironclad proof that gold is a good inflation hedge, as it literally retains its value to the point at which it outlives many lesser stores of value. Bitcoin simply doesn't have that history of use. It only launched in 2009. The idea that it's worth any serious sum at all is even newer than that. And while its supply is finite -- only 21 million coins in total can ever exist -- it hasn't yet outlasted any of the fiat currencies that it's exchangeable for. So it isn't proven to protect against purchasing power erosion by inflation, even if in its history so far it has outperformed gold. Gold is an important metal that's used in consumer electronics, scientific instruments, jewelry, and even in some foods and liquors, though it isn't very tasty for those applications. It's also quite shiny, which, knowing human psychology, makes people want to own it. But Bitcoin can't be used for anything except storing value. There's no industrial process that requires it. It isn't a component of any physical thing you use. And, being digital, it's difficult to show off to others. Therefore there's not any utility value in Bitcoin like there is in gold. That isn't an issue that precludes it from protecting investors from the impacts of inflation, but it does suggest that if scarcity of tangible goods ever becomes a real issue, gold might hold up better, as Bitcoin isn't a commodity that's needed for production. Over the last 10 years, Bitcoin has mostly gone up -- except for a couple of times when it lost approximately 80% of its value, and except for another couple of times when it lost around 40% of its value. It's volatile. And for a store of value that's intended to preserve purchasing power over time, that's a terrifying attribute to have, as it means the value of your asset may not be anywhere near where it was a month or two ago when the occasion arises that you need to use it to pay for a purchase. Gold's price has also increased in the same period. But what it hasn't done in the modern era is experience corrections that are anywhere near as sharp as Bitcoin's. That isn't to suggest that its price has been completely upwardly mobile, either; there have been long periods of its value remaining relatively static, or lower than during its boom periods. The point is that on average, you're more likely to be able to count on most of its value being around when you need it. It's technically possible that Bitcoin's volatility will eventually decrease somewhat as more of its supply is mined, and as more of its supply becomes concentrated in the hands of sovereign actors or corporate treasuries that aren't as prone to selling off their holdings as the widely distributed holder base is now. Still, until there's proof of that happening, expect it to continue being a lot more volatile than gold, not to mention a lot more volatile than assets like stocks or real estate. Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $614,911!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $714,958!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 907% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 163% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Bitcoin Truly "Digital Gold"? 3 Ways the Leading Cryptocurrency Diverges From the Most Popular Inflation Hedge was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Bitcoin breaks above $100,000 after US-UK trade deal
By The price of bitcoin has been trading above $100,000 for the first time since January after a US-UK trade deal revealed on Thursday prompted cautious market optimism. After a surge in the price yesterday, from about $97,000 to $103,000, the Bitcoin price was up by 0.1 percent for the session at $103,271.80 by late afternoon today. This took 2025 gains to around 10.5 percent and sees the leading crypto at its highest level since 22 January when it traded at around $105,559. January's peak was followed by an extended period of losses for investors in bitcoin, which fell as low as $75,000 by early April. It has recovered since then thanks to regulatory tailwinds, high volumes of ETF flows and, more recently, signs of easing trade tensions. The rally has also been seen in other major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, which is up 7 percent for the day but down by a third since the start of the year at $1,770.31. Matt Basi managing director of London Capital Group also highlighted falling global interest rates and 'renewed institutional interest' in helping to drive bitcoin higher. He said: 'With various states and governments opening up to adding the digital asset to their reserves, we could see the continuation of the rise in 'digital gold'. 'It's got about 10x to go from here to catch up with the market cap of the physical stuff...' Bitcoin's price is highly volatile and those backing it need to be aware that it can take large tumbles very quickly. Bitcoin due a sharp fall…and then a much bigger rally? 'Global liquidity – essentially how much money is available in the global economy and a metric which the bitcoin price closely mirrors – is forecast to increase throughout the year, and interest rates globally should continue to come down, contributing to looser financial conditions. 'Depending on what the bitcoin price is when the crypto bull market peaks – for example $150,000, $200,000, $250,000 – if we see a big drawdown in the year that follows, like 2018 and 2022, then there is a chance we could see $100,000 again, but this would be as the major bottom or end of the ensuing bear market in my opinion.' Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Visit our profile page and hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.
