Key Points
During the past decade, Bitcoin has transformed from a digital currency into a unique, standalone asset.If Bitcoin is truly digital gold, as some think, it could skyrocket in value to $20 trillion from its current $2 trillion.Over time, Bitcoin should become less volatile, as more investors view it as a stable, long-term investment
Right now, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has a market cap of about $2 trillion. That's roughly in line with the valuations of the Magnificent Seven tech stocks, which have valuations ranging from $1.5 trillion to just over $3 trillion.
But there's an opportunity for Bitcoin to go much higher. In fact, a $20 trillion market cap might be possible by 2030. If investors begin to view Bitcoin as more than just an ultra-risky tech asset, it could unlock trillions of dollars in market cap. Let's take a closer look.
What is Bitcoin, really?
In 2009, Bitcoin launched as a digital currency, built using blockchain technology and powered by an internal algorithm. Although Bitcoin differed from traditional fiat currencies (such as the U.S. dollar or the Japanese yen) in certain important ways, it was primarily designed to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
As a result, one obvious use case for Bitcoin was as a medium of exchange. In other words, you were supposed to use Bitcoin to pay for things. But, alas, that use case has never fully materialized. When was the last time you used Bitcoin to pay for anything?
That's why Bitcoin never went mainstream in its early years. Many people who used Bitcoin for payments were people engaged in dubious market dealings that required anonymity. That's the primary reason big institutional investors and Wall Street banks wouldn't touch Bitcoin with a 10-foot pole: There was a certain whiff of impropriety around it, and nobody could figure out what to do with it.
But, over time, Bitcoin produced such spectacular returns, year in and year out (with a few years of catastrophic performance mixed in along the way), that many investors began to view it as a hyper-volatile, hyper-speculative tech asset with astonishing upside potential.
Forward-looking investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley bought into this idea, and began accumulating Bitcoin at absurdly low valuations. For them, Bitcoin appeared to be a new type of tech investment opportunity, and they attempted to value it as such.
Is Bitcoin now digital gold?
Now, in 2025, Bitcoin has transformed yet again, into a unique asset that some are now calling digital gold. This final transformation could be the key to unlocking its true long-term value.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital (and a former White House Communications Director during the first Trump presidency), briefly described this evolution of Bitcoin. He put it very succinctly: If Bitcoin is just a hyper-risky tech asset, then its true valuation is in the $1 trillion to $3 trillion range. That would put it on par with the Magnificent Seven tech stocks.