Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo has declared bitcoin the “perfect asset” for the next millennium, but cautions it must draw much larger capital flows to challenge the dominance of gold and the US dollar.
Woo told attendees at the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga:
“The thing is, you don’t get to change the world unless this monetary asset — in my opinion, the perfect asset for the next thousand of years — does not get to do its job unless capital flows in and gets big enough to rival the US dollar.”
Currently, bitcoin’s market cap is just $2.43 trillion, standing at less than 11% of gold’s $23 trillion and well below the US dollar’s $21.9 trillion money supply.
Treasury risks and bubbles
Woo pointed to risks in the growing trend of corporate bitcoin treasuries, noting that the debt structures of these firms are largely opaque.
He warned:
“No one’s really publicly looked deeply into the debt structuring, so I absolutely think the weak ones will blow up, and people can lose a lot of money.”
Woo further questioned what would happen to these treasuries in a bear market:
“What happens to the bear market? Who’s swimming naked and how many coins get slapped back out into the market?”
Risk of centralized exposure
Woo cautioned that institutional investors are favoring spot bitcoin ETFs and large custody platforms over self-custody, which could put significant amounts of bitcoin within reach of governments.
He said this raises the risk of a “nation-state rug-pull.”
Max Kei, CEO of Debifi, said self-custody is expected to spread gradually from institutions like Coinbase to businesses and individuals.
Companies as adoption leaders
Blockstream CEO Adam Back argued that companies remain the most logical starting point for bitcoin adoption.
He stated that firms unable to outperform bitcoin’s expected returns should simply “close up shop and buy bitcoin.”
Back added that firms with solid core businesses can still thrive by integrating bitcoin, without necessarily being pure bitcoin plays.
