Bitcoin could begin to take market share from gold over the next decade as a hedge against inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, according to Blockstream CEO Adam Back.
Speaking during a fireside chat with Cointelegraph managing editor Gareth Jenkinson at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, Back said rising inflation and monetary instability across global economies will drive broader Bitcoin (BTC) adoption.
He compared the cryptocurrency to gold, noting its scarcity and growing recognition as a store of value despite its 30% correction from its all-time high above $109,000.
“Bitcoin has the advantage of being like gold — it’s a scarce asset but also undergoing an adoption curve,” he said.
Inflation continues to plague global economies, with major currencies like the US dollar and the euro seeing their supplies rise by more than 50% over the past five years — a development that may drive Bitcoin’s adoption as a hedge against monetary destabilization, according to Back.
“Eventually, that money is used to buy all the goods. So eventually they will go up by that much, particularly hard assets like housing, anything physical long term,” Back said. “The inflation rate is probably 10% or 15% for the next decade, an investment return that is very hard to get with stocks or housing rentals.”
“So there’s a real prospect of Bitcoin competing with gold and then starting to take some of the gold use cases, like as a geopolitical hedge, take some of that money into Bitcoin.”
Adam Back during a fireside chat with Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson. Source: Cointelegraph
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The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland expects the 10-year inflation rate to average 2.18% annually, according to data published on March 12.
Inflation projections. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland via FRED
However, alternative data points to a potential uptick in inflation over the next five years.
Consumer inflation expectations spiked to 5% for the next year and 4.1% over the next five years, a development amplifying economic concerns, according to a consumer survey from the University of Michigan published on March 28.
Consumers; expected change in inflation rates. Source: University of Michigan
Related: How $100K Bitcoin impacts the wealth gap in the digital age
Bitcoin adoption aided by ETFs and policy shift
Beyond growing monetary instability, US-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a more crypto-friendly US administration under President Donald Trump may help boost Bitcoin’s adoption as a hedge against inflation.
“US regulators approved the ETFs, finally, and the current US administration under Trump is removing a lot of negative regulation that was intended to slow down crypto adoption — like Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” Back said.
Back argued that Bitcoin adoption among private investors should precede institutional or governmental accumulation:
“I prefer that those people buy Bitcoin ahead of governments because as soon as governments buy, it’s probably going to create a wave of other governments competing with them.”
Source: Margo Martin
On March 7, President Trump signed an executive order to create a Bitcoin reserve seeded with Bitcoin seized from criminal cases, a move that industry leaders have called a major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the traditional financial system.
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