Bitcoin (BTC -1.13%) has undoubtedly made some of its early investors rich beyond their wildest dreams. That's because the world's top cryptocurrency has seen its price rise 41,000% in the past decade. A $10,000 investment back then would be worth more than $4.1 million today.
Bitcoin is now becoming a mainstream financial asset that's grabbing the attention of investors, corporations, and governments, bringing in a new pool of capital. As of July 24, it trades just 1% off its peak -- and there is still upside. But if you invest $10,000 in the crypto in 2025, will you become a millionaire in 10 years?
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Bitcoin's growing adoption
The world has now woken up to Bitcoin. Its 10-year track record is impressive. And the crypto has climbed 80% just in the past 12 months, as its incredible ascent continues.
Investors appreciate its scarcity, with a hard supply cap of 21 million coins -- in stark contrast to other tokens on the market. And it's significantly better than fiat currencies, which are constantly being debased due to governments' troubling financial actions that cause spending and debt to increase.
Institutions are getting in on the action. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have so far been wildly successful, bringing in tens of billions of dollars of capital since January 2024. Banks can now hold the crypto on behalf of clients, getting the green light from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. And corporations own it on their balance sheets, a strategy that has helped drive up market valuations.
The U.S. government is becoming accommodating as well. The White House created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. And Trump Media & Technology Group just announced a $2 billion purchase of the digital currency and related securities.
These trends drastically reduce the risk of buying and holding it. Growing adoption among major market participants is definitely a bullish indicator.
Beating the stock market
In the past decade, the S&P 500 index has generated a total return of 261%. This translates to an annualized gain of 13.7%, which is well ahead of the long-term average of 10%. Even if the closely watched benchmark repeats its superb performance over the next decade, I think Bitcoin will do even better.
Because it doesn't produce revenue, net income, or free cash flow, investors struggle to properly value it. However, it's worth comparing the digital asset to gold, which is a scarce, neutral global asset that is also viewed as a store of value. Gold has a total value of $22.6 trillion, with Bitcoin's market cap sitting at $2.4 trillion.
It's extremely reasonable to expect the cryptocurrency's price to rise tenfold over the next decade; it would simply have to get to parity with gold's value today. That's not hard to believe, especially when you consider the properties that make it superior to the precious metal. Plus, the ongoing digitization of our economy, coupled with the advancement of artificial intelligence agents, might provide another boost.
This would turn a $10,000 investment into $100,000 in 10 years' time. No one would argue with this wonderful outcome.
However, I don't think Bitcoin will rise 100-fold by 2035, which would turn a $10,000 outlay into $1 million. This kind of monster gain is a thing of the past -- the digital token is slowly maturing. And as it increases in value, the upside from that point forward naturally declines. But those who are able to invest more cash up front and extend their time horizon to several decades, can certainly raise the probability of becoming millionaires from Bitcoin.
