Why Bitcoin doesn't work well as a store of value.

[Eclipse01]

OP I strongly disagree, what is a store of value to begin with, it is the ability to sustain purchasing power over a long period of time, and Bitcoin had fulfilled that definition 100%, heck bitcoin has increased it's value much more than any asset u can think of over the last decade and it even have a bright future, all these points ur giving to invalidate it being a store of value is completely invalid cause it already fulfills the most important rule, sustainable purchasing power over time

[7juju]

2. Bitcoin doesn't have a stable source of demand.

By that I mean there is little to no demand for bitcoin beyond speculation. For example, Apple has a strong stable source of
(non-speculative) demand because billions of people in the world are buying iPhones and Mac computers every day.
Only 10 to 20% of demand comes from people speculating on Apple stock while 80 to 90% is from commercial product sales.
That contributes to the price stability for Apple. Same thing for gold. The primary source of demand for gold is the commercial
market for jewelry and other products. Unlike bitcoin gold doesn't rely on the speculation market nearly as much and is
what helps makes gold such a good store of value.

But do you understand that all these things you mentioned above are products/commodities while bitcoin is money used in buying those products and not a product itself. So you can't compare the demand base of these those products and that of bitcoin, to me bitcoin is more. Those people buying apple products, gold and the other things you mentioned are all part of the demand base for bitcoin if those merchants selling products like apple and other big global companies you can mention start accepting bitcoin as means of payments, the buyers  will either pay with fiat or bitcoin. So technically the 8 billion plus people in the world are the demand base of bitcoin.

[henry_of_skalitz]

OP I strongly disagree, what is a store of value to begin with, it is the ability to sustain purchasing power over a long period of time, and Bitcoin had fulfilled that definition 100%, heck bitcoin has increased it's value much more than any asset u can think of over the last decade and it even have a bright future, all these points ur giving to invalidate it being a store of value is completely invalid cause it already fulfills the most important rule, sustainable purchasing power over time

Yep, BTC is the one with the most potential given to it to this date, and it's not going to stop in the years to come.

It's still volatile, but it's okay as long as its core values are intact ensuring the growth going forward.

[cr1776]

Do you agree or disagree? I myself used to believe bitcoin was the greatest store of value ever created,
but after giving it a lot of thought I no longer believe that is the case, and here is why.
...

If one's attention span is longer than that of a fly, then it is a great store of value.  One stable source of demand is the fact that central banks are devaluing the currency by 3-10% (or much, much more in many places) every year.  And are putting currency controls (e.g. Cyprus in 2013) and other controls on people worldwide. 

[Lida93]

HODLing and "never sell your bitcoins" are nice slogans but in reality it is easier said than done for most.

It's only hard for those who don't understand bitcoin otherwise there's nothing so hard about that when you're determined to hold base on knowledge. You would agree that there's no way you would be holding bitcoin for at least 5 five years and you wouldn't be in profit . So bitcoin when held in a long term isn't only underscores preservation of value but profitability. It isn't about at what price you bought but the right holding timeframe is what guarantees the profit.

[headingnorth]

HODLing and "never sell your bitcoins" are nice slogans but in reality it is easier said than done for most.

It's only hard for those who don't understand bitcoin otherwise there's nothing so hard about that when you're determined to hold base on knowledge. You would agree that there's no way you would be holding bitcoin for at least 5 five years and you wouldn't be in profit . So bitcoin when held in a long term isn't only underscores preservation of value but profitability. It isn't about at what price you bought but the right holding timeframe is what guarantees the profit.

That is true for almost any asset. You can hold almost anything for 5 years and be in profit.
Stocks, bonds, ETFs, gold, silver, certificates of deposit, etc. Any of those things will net you a decent return
after 5 years. The only question is how much return?

In the early days of Amazon, Apple, Costco, Nvidia, Tesla, etc you could 10x, 20x, 50x your money depending on how early you bought in.
But these days Apple and Amazon are very mature companies with multi-trillion dollar marketcaps, so you can no longer expect to receive such big
exponential returns. The average return for a MAG7 company this year in 2025 was only around 15% to 20%.

Guess what? The average return this year for bitcoin was also very similar at around 20% in 2025. So why would you invest in bitcoin now instead
of any of the MAG7 stocks? With Apple or Tesla you can get a similar  annual return as bitcoin without suffering through much greater volatility.

That is because like any of the MAG7 stocks Bitcoin is now also a mature asset with a multi-trillion dollar marketcap,
so don't expect to receive the same crazy returns that OG holders scored back in the early days of the asset.

[Raflesia]

1. People often say bitcoin is a store of value, but in the same breath also tell you it is highly volatile.
Those are two contradictory things. A store of value has to be more or less stable in price. It cannot be both
highly volatile and a good store of value imo.

When something is very volatile, it tends to shake people out and cause them to panic and sell.
That is why most people will not be able to HODL bitcoin for long. Of course there are some hardcore HODLers
who are able to hold it for many years (I was one of them) but they are the exception not the rule.

From the beginning, we realize that bitcoin is risky and we cannot rule out fluctuations if we want to be in bitcoin. The reason why many people still use this as a hedge is not that they are not aware of the risks but they know that when they do it for the long term the risks they have will be more minimized.

Indeed, bitcoin will not be able to be used as a hedge if we are only in bitcoin for a few weeks or months because the risk is still very large but when the development of bitcoin looks very good so far and we make this a long term then there is an expectation where bitcoin will be even better in terms of value and it is certain that hedging will occur here with a note is long-term.

HODLing and "never sell your bitcoins" are nice slogans but in reality it is easier said than done for most.

That's why strong hands are always given a huge applause because not everyone can be like that.

[fuguebtc]

It's only hard for those who don't understand bitcoin otherwise there's nothing so hard about that when you're determined to hold base on knowledge. You would agree that there's no way you would be holding bitcoin for at least 5 five years and you wouldn't be in profit . So bitcoin when held in a long term isn't only underscores preservation of value but profitability. It isn't about at what price you bought but the right holding timeframe is what guarantees the profit.

That is true for almost any asset. You can hold almost anything for 5 years and be in profit.
Stocks, bonds, ETFs, gold, silver, certificates of deposit, etc. Any of those things will net you a decent return
after 5 years. The only question is how much return?

In the early days of Amazon, Apple, Costco, Nvidia, Tesla, etc you could 10x, 20x, 50x your money depending on how early you bought in.
But these days Apple and Amazon are very mature companies with multi-trillion dollar marketcaps, so you can no longer expect to receive such big
exponential returns. The average return for a MAG7 company this year in 2025 was only around 15% to 20%.

Guess what? The average return this year for bitcoin was also very similar at around 20% in 2025. So why would you invest in bitcoin now instead
of any of the MAG7 stocks? With Apple or Tesla you can get a similar  annual return as bitcoin without suffering through much greater volatility.

That is because like any of the MAG7 stocks Bitcoin is now also a mature asset with a multi-trillion dollar marketcap,
so don't expect to receive the same crazy returns that OG holders scored back in the early days of the asset.

I agree with you that bitcoin is mature and with a market cap of $2 trillion. We should stop expecting it to grow a thousand times and make us rich like the early investors. I have said this many times but it seems many investors are still not awake and refuse to accept that harsh reality.

But I still believe it can give better returns than the MAG7 group of stocks you mentioned. Bitcoin is an asset and is considered digital gold, it is not just a stock based on the company's business performance. Its potential is much greater.
Furthermore, if we can take advantage of its volatility, we will gain even more significant profits. Volatility is a feature and opportunity if used wisely, not a bug. Like those who know how to take advantage and buy bitcoin in 2022 at $15k, they will make huge profits in just 3 years, something that few stocks can offer.

[davis196]

1.Yes, Bitcoin is volatile, but it's value had increased a lot in the past 15 years. BTC value growth kinda proves that Bitcoin can work as a store of value.
2.Bitcoin price directly corelates to other risky assets and the economy. I agree with this, but we can't isolate BTC in a bubble, which exists outside of the economy. The topic about BTC being a speculative rather than a "safe heaven" asset has been discussed a thousand times and there's no point repeating the same thing over and over again.
3.The lack of stable BTC adoption and the unstable demand for BTC is what creates the volatility. Many companies don't want to accept BTC because of the price volatility. This "volatility trap" stops the mass adoption of BTC. I can't think of a solution for this problem.

[shield132]

Do you agree or disagree? I myself used to believe bitcoin was the greatest store of value ever created,
but after giving it a lot of thought I no longer believe that is the case, and here is why.


1. People often say bitcoin is a store of value, but in the same breath also tell you it is highly volatile.
Those are two contradictory things. A store of value has to be more or less stable in price. It cannot be both
highly volatile and a good store of value imo.

When something is very volatile, it tends to shake people out and cause them to panic and sell.
That is why most people will not be able to HODL bitcoin for long. Of course there are some hardcore HODLers
who are able to hold it for many years (I was one of them) but they are the exception not the rule.

HODLing and "never sell your bitcoins" are nice slogans but in reality it is easier said than done for most.

2. Bitcoin doesn't have a stable source of demand.

By that I mean there is little to no demand for bitcoin beyond speculation. For example, Apple has a strong stable source of
(non-speculative) demand because billions of people in the world are buying iPhones and Mac computers every day.
Only 10 to 20% of demand comes from people speculating on Apple stock while 80 to 90% is from commercial product sales.
That contributes to the price stability for Apple. Same thing for gold. The primary source of demand for gold is the commercial
market for jewelry and other products. Unlike bitcoin gold doesn't rely on the speculation market nearly as much and is
what helps makes gold such a good store of value.

3. It is easy to HODL it when prices were low.

In the early days of bitcoin there were many bitcoin OGs who bought it very cheaply. You can buy one bitcoin for a few dollars,
or even a hundred bitcoins for very little. Of course, it is easy for you to HODL it for many years even during extreme volatility,
because it cost you almost nothing. Even if the price goes to zero you aren't losing much.

But it is not so easy to HODL for those who bought in later when prices are much higher, because you now have a lot more to lose.
When the volatility hits you are more likely to hit the sell button. That is why the path from zero to $100K is a lot easier.

But the path from $100K to $200K will probably be much tougher and longer IMO, assuming it will get that high.


4. Bitcoin is too correlated to risk assets and the economy.

When the economy tanks so do risk assets such as bitcoin. Which shows that people do not generally view bitcoin as a flight to safety
or a good store of value when times are bad. To the contrary it is one of the first things that gets dumped. Again, this is tied
to the fact that bitcoin has no strong or stable source of demand outside of speculation. Without it bitcoin may be forever
destined and limited to the niche market.

1. Bitcoin is the best store of value. You can buy a USB flash drive, install Electrum on it and here is your Bitcoin wallet on a tiny drive that can store all the Bitcoins in the world. You can even write down 12 phrases on a piece of tiny paper and it will hold all the Bitcoin in the world. What's better than this? The method alone is the best.
Btw while Bitcoin is volatile, that doesn't make it a bad store of value. It's pumps and dumps but if you look at charts from the beginning to this day, you'll understand that it's again the best store of value because it always rises. There has never been a bear market that lasted for a very long time and every 4 years, Bitcoin not only reaches its ATH but it surpasses it and makes a record of new ATH.

2. Billions of dollars are invested in Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related businesses. How can you say that there is no demand? It's the best-performing asset in the last decades.

3. The price doesn't matter when it comes to the easiness of holding a Bitcoin. It's easy because it sets a new ATH price every 4 years. All you need is to hold it at least for 4 years and you'll profit.

[betswift]

HODLing and "never sell your bitcoins" are nice slogans but in reality it is easier said than done for most.

It's only hard for those who don't understand bitcoin otherwise there's nothing so hard about that when you're determined to hold base on knowledge. You would agree that there's no way you would be holding bitcoin for at least 5 five years and you wouldn't be in profit . So bitcoin when held in a long term isn't only underscores preservation of value but profitability. It isn't about at what price you bought but the right holding timeframe is what guarantees the profit.

Yep, I agree with this.

If you have enough time, BTC is there for you to buy at anytime - ATH, dip, spike, correction, you name it, you will still be in a good shape by the start of a new cycle.

[GeorgeJohn]

It's a misconceptions that made you and other more to think that bitcoin were meant to be a store value, And I noticed that many people has been misled by thinking same, Bitcoin is a digital currency that's decentralized and mission Bitcoin were created is to become a global currency for easy transaction across intercontinental, but due to we fail not to comprehend the mission of Bitcoin and felt that bitcoin were meant for store values...if anyone wants to use bitcoin as a store value, it's for the detriment of the person,  but it's not generally means that the original plans why bitcoin is been introduced is because it wants to be use as a store values..

[hero_the_bossman]

It's a misconceptions that made you and other more to think that bitcoin were meant to be a store value, And I noticed that many people has been misled by thinking same, Bitcoin is a digital currency that's decentralized and mission Bitcoin were created is to become a global currency for easy transaction across intercontinental, but due to we fail not to comprehend the mission of Bitcoin and felt that bitcoin were meant for store values...if anyone wants to use bitcoin as a store value, it's for the detriment of the person,  but it's not generally means that the original plans why bitcoin is been introduced is because it wants to be use as a store values..

People always do search for usability and profit of anything, imo, and BTC is no exception.

Most newbies want to make a buck of it, not to use it for services / etc., it's part of the human nature.

[Son Of Blockchain (SOB)]

You forget to add that Bitcoin is not for everyone 🤷‍♀️

What do you people that keep saying these things even understand by store of value? Before an asset is called a store of value, it means that the asset is scarce, durable, liquid, can be saved and can be exchanged later one without it losing its purchasing power. Does Bitcoin lack any of those characteristics?

You said Bitcoin is not easy to be hold when the price is low, but if you can not hold Bitcoin when the price is low, you can not also hold other of your assets when the price depreciate. But Bitcoin has a significant time lock feature that allows you to lock your Bitcoin until a specific period of time. You can lock it and set your time till next bull season.

Exactly mate lol, if anyone things Bitcoin isn't a great store of value after the massive improvement over time then they have nothing to do with Bitcoin or even find themselves in this forum, except they're like Peter Schiff the awkward economist who mostly criticise Bitcoin when the market is down just to promote his gold business, which makes no sense.
 I find the OP statements discouraging and he should desist from that, maybe he's one of those traders that find it difficult to invest and hodl Bitcoin for long-term, anyways lack of understanding concerning Bitcoin do make people talk trash about it just like the so called Peter does, and if the OP is not aware that he can stake his Bitcoin and lock it for a longer period then he better learn than say thrash.

[Przemax]

Bitcoin is an excelent store of value. Its fungible, durable and is deflationary. What else would you want? Nothing in this world is perfect. Bitcoin doesnt even come near of being perfect but it excelent to store a value.

[CageMabok]

Bitcoin is an excelent store of value. Its fungible, durable and is deflationary. What else would you want? Nothing in this world is perfect. Bitcoin doesnt even come near of being perfect but it excelent to store a value.

Perhaps the OP is looking for something better than Bitcoin at this time, although I personally haven't seen or found anything better. Because to date, Bitcoin is not only suitable as a store of value, but also a suitable investment asset for the future, as many have seen over several four-year cycles that Bitcoin can provide greater returns to its holders. So, in this case, it's clearly not a bad idea to buy and hold Bitcoin for the long term with a clear goal of achieving greater returns than those holding other assets.

[Dogedegen]

Are you talking about the law the bans social media for children or something else? If you are then that is a good law. Nobody under 21 should be allowed on social media,

Yes, I'm talking about that law. And I strongly disagree with you on this point, even more with your arbitrary limit of 21 years (people are adults in almost the whole world with 18 already.).

Maybe a separate topic would be better? I will answer you briefly but if you make a thread do send me a message with it. We can discuss this and it is good that we don't always see eye to eye. My arbitrary limit is a conservative limit probably 25 or 30 should be the minimum for such dangerous things. Any number that we use is going to be pretty arbitrary, the definition of adults is mostly arbitrary too. Just because experts agree on a definition that does not make it non arbitrary. If you think about it, how many kids are mature at those ages? Very few.

What makes kids addict to social media are algorithms for the social feeds that benefit "engagement" and thus often highlight content with hate and other highly emotional topics. That is where I think the lawmakers should act. They should insist on the feed sorting algorithms of large platforms being open source, and algorithms "benefitting hate content" should be prohibited. And if these algorithms are open, then schools and parents can teach children from an early age how these algorithms work, and how they can be a danger for an addiction.

That is going after the symptoms of a disease and not the disease itself. For some reason you are treating social media as something that is necessary where I consider it a cancer that is not needed. Therefore I am fine against complete restrictions or abolishment of social media. I think that you are completely mistaken with the open algorithms argument. Do you really think that parents would do something about it and that people have time and interest to learn about these things..? Again your focus is on symptoms, mine is on the main cause. If even Meta was willing to publish some studies on the negative impact on social media then you can be sure that the real impact is worse by a factor of 10 to 100x. You don't need to wait for science for this to confirm which is not in anybody's interest as the industry stands to lose hundreds of billions if kids are banned from these things. Just observe careful the average example of the current kids, the ones that grew up with these things from a young age. Most of whom I have met directly or observed indirectly across many countries are like brainwashed zombies from infinite content consumption..

Bitcoin should not be considered as store of value, then it will deviate from its real purpose of it and will end up in the hands of the rich and elites who will not likely use their stash of bitcoin ever after they accumulate which will end up a waste of the technology.

People can consider Bitcoin as whatever they are, that won't make it deviate from anything. There is no real purpose to Bitcoin, it is a neutral tool. You can use it as cash as was indicated in the title of the whitepaper, but you can use it as whatever else you want. Store of value is a function and as such anything can be evaluated in terms of how much it fulfills this function.

Guess what? The average return this year for bitcoin was also very similar at around 20% in 2025. So why would you invest in bitcoin now instead
of any of the MAG7 stocks? With Apple or Tesla you can get a similar  annual return as bitcoin without suffering through much greater volatility.

That is because like any of the MAG7 stocks Bitcoin is now also a mature asset with a multi-trillion dollar marketcap,
so don't expect to receive the same crazy returns that OG holders scored back in the early days of the asset.

The value determination of those companies has nothing to do with the value determination of Bitcoin. Actually you got this in reverse. If those companies can achieve such a value then Bitcoin should be able to achieve 10 or 100 times that value without a problem. They offer gimmicky and overpriced products and rely on inflation for profit boosting. Bitcoin is in a completely different category. The comparison does not make any sense at all.

Bitcoin is an excelent store of value. Its fungible, durable and is deflationary. What else would you want? Nothing in this world is perfect. Bitcoin doesnt even come near of being perfect but it excelent to store a value.

Compared to what other alternatives exist in our reality, Bitcoin IS perfect.

[Ivystar5]

I disagree with you OP, bitcoin is a good store of value not because I'm a member of the forum and I'm trying to play along in the favour of bitcoin but ever since I have known bitcoin and from research there is not asset that can possibly loss a lot of value and double it with 4 years and has been doing that for a long time yet never has it been recorded that it failed to comeback or increase the value that has been put into it, this mere reason is why bitcoin is ever far better than any other asset that you may describe to be store of value than bitcoin.

[serjent05]

For the early adopters, Bitcoin is surely the best store of value because it not only preserves the value of their fund but multiplies it thousands to a million times, but for those who bought Bitcoin at its peak this last ATH, I think they are hesitant to say Bitcoin as a good store of Value because their funds already diminish in just a matter of month.  

Bitcoin may not be a good store of value for short-term investors, but for long-term holders, according to its price history, it is the best store of value so far.

[headingnorth]

It's only hard for those who don't understand bitcoin otherwise there's nothing so hard about that when you're determined to hold base on knowledge. You would agree that there's no way you would be holding bitcoin for at least 5 five years and you wouldn't be in profit . So bitcoin when held in a long term isn't only underscores preservation of value but profitability. It isn't about at what price you bought but the right holding timeframe is what guarantees the profit.

That is true for almost any asset. You can hold almost anything for 5 years and be in profit.
Stocks, bonds, ETFs, gold, silver, certificates of deposit, etc. Any of those things will net you a decent return
after 5 years. The only question is how much return?

In the early days of Amazon, Apple, Costco, Nvidia, Tesla, etc you could 10x, 20x, 50x your money depending on how early you bought in.
But these days Apple and Amazon are very mature companies with multi-trillion dollar marketcaps, so you can no longer expect to receive such big
exponential returns. The average return for a MAG7 company this year in 2025 was only around 15% to 20%.

Guess what? The average return this year for bitcoin was also very similar at around 20% in 2025. So why would you invest in bitcoin now instead
of any of the MAG7 stocks? With Apple or Tesla you can get a similar  annual return as bitcoin without suffering through much greater volatility.

That is because like any of the MAG7 stocks Bitcoin is now also a mature asset with a multi-trillion dollar marketcap,
so don't expect to receive the same crazy returns that OG holders scored back in the early days of the asset.

I agree with you that bitcoin is mature and with a market cap of $2 trillion. We should stop expecting it to grow a thousand times and make us rich like the early investors. I have said this many times but it seems many investors are still not awake and refuse to accept that harsh reality.

But I still believe it can give better returns than the MAG7 group of stocks you mentioned. Bitcoin is an asset and is considered digital gold, it is not just a stock based on the company's business performance. Its potential is much greater.
Furthermore, if we can take advantage of its volatility, we will gain even more significant profits. Volatility is a feature and opportunity if used wisely, not a bug. Like those who know how to take advantage and buy bitcoin in 2022 at $15k, they will make huge profits in just 3 years, something that few stocks can offer.

As a trader you can take advantage of bitcoin's volatility to make short-term profits. Of course, that comes with its own risks.

But beyond speculation, there are still some great use cases that are unique to bitcoin. For example, if someone doesn't trust
the banks or the financial system, they can self-custody bitcoin on a hardware wallet to avoid or minimize counter-party risk.
You can send and receive bitcoin very easily anywhere in the world which is another major benefit for bitcoin.

If such things are important to you, it's still a good idea to have some of your portfolio in bitcoin.