Gensler Says Bitcoin is the Next Gold: Here Comes $921,500

Today, Bitcoin is no longer worth one ounce of gold. No, it’s better than that. At current prices it’s worth around 36.5 ounces of gold.

Author

Adam Atlantic
January 16, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

It’s November 2013.

Just one month earlier the U.S. Government shut down for 16 days when Congress couldn’t agree on a path forward on funding the U.S. spiralling debt obligations.

The ‘debt-ceiling’ of $16.4 trillion had been reached and there was no more money to run the government. The $16.4 trillion had been put in place because of a 2011 crisis where the government ran out of money after hitting the previous debt ceiling.

[Note: the debt ceiling today is $31.4 trillion, albeit suspended (in other words, removed) because once again the government has reached the ceiling.]

As this all unfolded in 2013, a relatively unknown, underground, ‘crypto currency’ called, BitCoin (as it was regularly written as back then) was rocketing higher in value.

In the depths of BitCoin’s most popular forum, Bitcointalk, the march higher in price had been several years in the making.

In fact, just days after Bitcoin launched, on The Cryptography Mailing List emails, Hal Finney emailed:

But to get to the value of all the world’s wealth, you’ve got to pass a few checkpoints. And the first and most obvious was always the price of gold.

And then, just four short years into Bitcoin’s existence, on the leading Bitcoin exchange at the time, Mt.Gox, the price of Bitcoin hit $1,242. Remember, when Finney posted his ‘thought experiment’ Bitcoin was worth cents, barely even 10 cents.

When Bitcoin hit $1,242 it took its first major traditional finance (TradFi) scalp…

The price of an ounce of gold.

Gensler’s Exit Interview

Sure, it was brief. And sure, it only topped gold by around two cents. But it did happen all the way back in 2013.[1] Global debt crises in Europe (notably Greece and Cyprus) the U.S. debt ceiling, ongoing weakness from the aftermath still of the 2008 financial crisis… those headwinds for traditional finance were tailwinds for Bitcoin.

Today, 11-and-a-bit years down the track, Bitcoin is no longer worth one ounce of gold. No, it’s better than that. At current prices it’s worth around 36.5 ounces of gold.

It would make sense that even the outgoing chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, who has been at the helm of the most anti-crypto enforcement agency in living memory has said in his ‘exit interview’ on CNBC:[2]

‘Bitcoin is a highly speculative asset, but 7 billion people want to trade it. Just like we had gold for 10,000 years, we have Bitcoin.’

If Gary Gensler is saying Bitcoin is the next evolution of gold, what does that look like for Bitcoin’s price?

How One Bitcoin Gets to $921,500

Well, in short it means that gold has lost around 98% of its value against the Bitcoin since 2013. Yes, gold has done fine against the value of the dollar, but in Bitcoin terms, it’s been horrible.

While both are seen as a store of value, clearly one stores it better than the other. And it’s that aspect of Bitcoin, that means there’s a real chance the next level in the Bitcoin vs. gold saga is the entire value of Bitcoin’s network, being worth the entire value of gold.

Estimations are the value of all above ground gold is in the ballpark of $18.2 trillion.[3] That’s around 9.5 times the value of all Bitcoin. And at a current price of $97,000 should Bitcoin get to $18.2 trillion it would reflect a price of $921,500.

Maybe that sounds crazy. But rest assured in 2009 when Finney thought about it, and Bitcoin was at a few cents, the idea that just four years later one Bitcoin would be worth more than once ounce of gold was crazy too.

Who’s to say in a year, or two or maybe as long as four, all Bitcoin will be worth more than all the gold?

Trust in crypto,
Adam Atlantic