Saifedean Ammous argues that Bitcoin currently functions as money, held as a store of value. He expects it to grow larger and more volatile than gold as it matures.

Writer for Bitcoin Standard: Bitcoin will become "less confiscable" and larger than gold

Saifedean Ammous argues that Bitcoin currently functions as a currency that is held as a store of value. It is expected to become larger and more volatile than gold as it matures.

Saifedean Ammous, author of the 2018 academic book "Bitcoin Standard," said that bitcoin currently functions as a medium of exchange and is likely to be less affected by volatility.

"Bitcoin (BTC) can serve as a medium of exchange because it is less volatile than gold while still outperforming the market cap of the largest precious metal," Ammous wrote in a Tuesday X post.

Ammous added: "Having bitcoin uses bitcoin as money, and its lack of widespread use as a payment method is no proof against its monetization."

These statements were made in response to a part of Professor Lawrence H. White's book entitled "Better Money: Gold, Fiat or Bitcoin?" He has been quoted as arguing that Bitcoin's fixed supply makes it too volatile as a medium of exchange.

"Without supply responding to demand fluctuations, the price of Bitcoin is too volatile for people who want a reliable medium of exchange," White wrote in a Monday X post, referring to the sixth chapter of his book. He added that the lack of supply response is why stablecoins have "eaten BTC's lunch transaction volume".

Other industry observers have also predicted that Bitcoin will eventually overtake gold. In May 2025, Andre Dragoš, Head of European Research at Bitwise, told Cointelegraph that their internal forecast predicted a $1 million Bitcoin price by 2029, which would bring Bitcoin in line with the market value of gold.

However, Bitcoin's current $1.6 trillion market cap would need to grow at least 18-fold to overtake gold's nearly $29 trillion market cap to become the world's leading asset.

In April 2025, Blockstream CEO Adam Beck predicted that Bitcoin would begin competing with gold's use cases as a monetary hedge due to global financial instability and rising fiat inflation.