Bitcoin: Forever or Just a Fickle Fancy? 🤔

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Right ho! It appears a chap named Willy Woo – a Bitcoin “OG”, whatever that may be, sounds frightfully important – has declared that Bitcoin is, and I quote, the “perfect asset” for the next millennium. A thousand years, you say? Good heavens! 🕰️ One imagines the Roman Empire felt similarly secure, but I digress.

The snag, apparently, is that it won’t be toppling the venerable US dollar or even old reliable gold unless a positively staggering amount of capital comes a-flooding in. According to Woo, speaking at a conference in Riga, Latvia (a place I’ve always meant to visit, purely for research, naturally), it needs to get “big enough to rival” those established titans. Currently, Bitcoin’s market cap is a mere $2.42 trillion, a pittance compared to gold’s $23 trillion and the US dollar’s frankly alarming $21.9 trillion. Utterly beastly!

Bitcoin treasury firms boost adoption, but with risks

Now, the plot thickens. It seems there are at least a couple of obstacles standing in the way of Bitcoin becoming the world’s reserve asset. Bitcoin treasury firms, for example, are causing a bit of a stir, and rather alarmingly, no one seems to have bothered looking closely at how they’re handling their debts. Woo suspects the weaker ones are heading for a most unpleasant bang, potentially relieving investors of a great deal of ready cash. 💸 And other “altcoins” are apparently copying the playbook, which could lead to “another bubble”. Honestly, the sheer audacity of it all!

He posed a perfectly reasonable question – what happens during a spot of bother in the markets? “Who’s swimming naked and how many coins get slapped back out into the market?” A vivid image, I must say. One hopes one isn’t among those caught short.

Bitcoin at risk of nation-state meddling

And as if that weren’t enough, there’s the rather distressing possibility of governments getting their sticky fingers involved. If investors rely on those newfangled Exchange Traded Funds and pension funds – rather than keeping the digital loot safely under their own hats – it concentrates the Bitcoin in places where governments can… well, let’s just say “persuade” it to appear somewhere else. A “rug-pull” at a “nation-state level,” he calls it. Dreadfully unsporting, don’t you think? 😠

Apparently, these investors with the “money bags” aren’t overly keen on self-custody. They prefer using ETFs or dubious treasury companies. Honestly, leaving one’s financial future to others invariably ends in tears.

Woo was holding forth alongside chaps like Adam Back, Danny Knowles, Leon Wankum, and Max Kei. Kei, a self-custody enthusiast – a sensible fellow, mark my words – believes that self-custody will gradually spread from companies to individuals, a most welcome development.

Companies still the most ‘logical’ place for Bitcoin adoption

Back, however, maintains that companies remain the most sensible place to start. He suggests that if a company can’t outperform Bitcoin, it should simply pack up shop and invest in the stuff. A rather drastic measure, perhaps, but one can see his point. A perfectly reasonable chap, even if a bit blunt. 🧐

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2025-08-11 07:15