Bitwise CIO: Bitcoin’s addressable market could beat gold

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said Bitcoin’s addressable market could surpass gold if it becomes both a “store of value” and a currency-like asset. He pointed to the Iran conflict and related plans to charge crypto-paid tolls for ships through the Strait of Hormuz as evidence Bitcoin can function beyond a pure asset, acting as an “apolitical alternative” when states weaponize financial rails. Hougan reiterated a prior projection: if Bitcoin captures 17% of the store-of-value market over the next decade, it could reach $1 million per coin. He argued targets may need to be revised higher if Bitcoin also gains a dual role like gold and the dollar. Market context: Bitcoin is trading around $74,500 with a ~$1.4T market cap, while gold is around $4,854 per ounce with a ~$33.7T market cap. The article notes Bitcoin usage in high-inflation countries (e.g., Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela), corporate balance-sheet adoption (companies tracked by BitBo hold 1.5M+ BTC valued at $116B+), and payments adoption (Springer Nature citing ~11,000 merchants accepting BTC). For traders, the core takeaway is a narrative shift toward broader adoption drivers—geopolitical stress, currency-like utility, and institutional accumulation—rather than just “digital gold.”