In my view, Bitcoin (BTC 0.26%) remains the best cryptocurrency to own over the next 100 years. While other investors get involved in other cryptocurrencies, including altcoins and meme coins, there's one reason you should never give up on Bitcoin.
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
Bitcoin will forever be digital gold
It is very rare for an asset to be considered a global store of value. A store-of-value asset is exactly what it sounds like -- investors can reasonably expect it to maintain its value in a variety of conditions. From war and famine to years of plenty, these assets have continually shown that they can outlast temporary volatility.
What are some examples? The most popular are land, collectibles, gold, and other precious metals. Notice something similar about these assets? While more land may be developed, more collectibles identified, and more gold mined, the total quantity of each can never increase.
The amount of available land will be the same 100 years from now. And while collectibles are still being created, they aren't making any more wine bottled in the 1700s, nor are they producing more 1960s classic cars. Whatever there is today is all there ever will be. The same is true for gold and other precious metals. More may be mined, but more can't be created.
Image source: Getty Images.
With stock markets trading at very high valuations, investors are wise to seek out alternative assets, such as land, collectibles, and precious metals like gold. Bitcoin should be near the top of that list. Yes, more Bitcoin is mined every day. But there's a limit to how many coins can exist. The maximum long-term supply is 21 million, and 19 million have already been mined. This makes Bitcoin a scarce asset, similar to other store-of-value assets.
Gold has been valued by humans for thousands of years. Land, of course, has been valued by humans since the dawn of time. Very rarely do new assets appear that have global recognition of value simply by existing.
Bitcoin is one of those assets. And while its history is relatively short, Bitcoin's total market cap reflects this reality. The total value of land globally is at least several hundred trillion dollars. Gold, meanwhile, has a market cap of around $24 trillion. Bitcoin, however, has a total market cap of under $2 trillion.
There's a lot of room for Bitcoin to run compared to gold's long history. And while there may be a lot of volatility along the way, Bitcoin's total supply cap continues to make it a multidecade holding.
