TL;DR
- Dan Morehead said Bitcoin will deliver stronger performance than gold during the next decade because its fixed supply protects investors from the erosion of paper currencies.
- Tom Lee argued the market no longer follows a rigid four-year rhythm and highlighted improving activity on Ethereum and healthier leverage levels.
- Both speakers agreed that institutional exposure remains extremely small and that this gap creates room for long and sustained growth.
Bitcoin faces a difficult short-term environment, yet several veteran investors believe the long horizon favors digital assets. At the Ondo Summit in New York, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead stated that Bitcoin will crush gold returns over 10 years and explained that currencies issued by governments lose purchasing power every year. He described this process as a silent transfer of wealth from savers to issuers and said assets with a predictable quantity offer a better defense.
Morehead compared the role of gold in previous generations with the new function of Bitcoin. Gold, he noted, served as a shield when money expanded too fast, but Bitcoin provides the same protection with easier transfer and verification. He added that exchange-traded funds for both assets attracted similar flows recently, showing that investor attention can rotate between them.
Tom Lee from Fundstrat joined the panel and challenged the belief that prices must obey a simple calendar cycle. He pointed to higher usage on Ethereum and to the strong deleveraging seen late last year as signs of a market that is learning to stand on real demand. Lee expects future rallies to depend more on adoption rather than mechanical patterns.
Why Bitcoin Will Crush Gold Returns Over 10 Years
Morehead stressed that most large financial firms still own almost no crypto. The median allocation, he said, sits near zero even after the approval of spot funds in the United States. For him, it is impossible to talk about excess when such a large part of global capital has not entered the field.
The Pantera founder listed improvements that changed the landscape during the last five years. Custody services became more professional, accounting rules turned clearer and regulators began to offer guidance instead of barriers. Those steps reduced the reasons institutions once used to avoid the sector.
Crypto Use Inside Daily Finance
Lee described how stablecoins, tokenized bonds and digital payment tools already operate behind traditional services. Many people, he said, will use crypto rails without noticing the technology, in the same way early internet users sent messages without understanding servers.
Both speakers suggested that nations could compete to accumulate Bitcoin as confidence in sovereign debt weakens. Morehead argued that holding an asset beyond political control looks sensible for countries that want independence.
