"Selling Bitcoin... for what?

If you sell Bitcoin, what do you buy instead? Which asset has better properties? What do you exchange for the absolute digital scarcity of Bitcoin? And a comparison of Bitcoin with other assets."

An article by Bram Kanstain, translated with some adaptation.

A perspective from the first principles of each asset class, and why nothing else approaches Bitcoin.
A recurring question whenever someone tells me they are "making profits" on their Bitcoin, whether from friends, private messages, or financial podcasts treating Bitcoin as a traded tech stock.
The simple question: selling Bitcoin for what? Not "when do you sell?" or "what's the price target?" but a deeper question: if you sell Bitcoin, what do you buy instead? Which asset has better properties? What do you exchange for absolute digital scarcity?

- The valuation table: Bitcoin versus everything:
Jesse Meyers wrote an article titled "The Full Valuation of Bitcoin's Potential" that radically changed my thinking. His core idea is that Bitcoin doesn't compete in a sector but in the market of value itself, the entire world's valuation, which amounts to about $900 trillion in global assets.

Bitcoin's current market value is around $1.3 trillion, only 0.15% of global wealth. If Bitcoin captured 10% of the store-of-value market, the coin's price would reach $4.5 million; at 25%—a conservative estimate based on its dominance—it could reach $10 million per coin.
But these numbers are only meaningful if Bitcoin truly outperforms, so let's examine each category: do you sell Bitcoin to buy this?

- Stocks: You don't own what you think you own:
Most people believe they own a part of Apple or Tesla when they buy shares through a broker, but they don't. A entity called Cede & Co(, affiliated with the Depository Trust Company), is the legal owner of most shares listed in the US, and you are a "beneficial owner" in a chain of promises to pay.
It gets worse with rehypothecation(: brokers use your shares as collateral for loans up to 140%. Remember GameStop 2021: short interest reached 140% of available shares, more than the actual shares outstanding, and this is by design.
Markets are open 6.5 hours a day, five days a week), about 18.5% of the year(, while Bitcoin trades 24/7/365, and trading can be halted or buying restricted, as happened with GameStop. Annual returns of 10% for the S&P 500 are biased due to survivorship bias), and future projections from GMO and Vanguard range from -2.6% to 3.9% in real terms.

- Gold: The traditional reserve with a fatal flaw:
I respect gold; humans have chosen it for 5,000 years for its rarity, durability, divisibility(, and beauty, but it has structural weaknesses that Bitcoin was designed to solve.
Confiscation: In 1933, FDR issued Executive Order 6102, requiring gold to be surrendered to the Federal Reserve at $20.67 per ounce), with a fine of $249,000 today or 10 years in prison(, then raised the price to $35, effectively confiscating 41% of dollar value, and Americans were barred from owning gold until 1974).
Paper gold problem: 95% of London market trading is "unallocated"(, a contractual claim without physical backing), and in COMEX, the paper-to-physical gold ratio is 100:1, with only 1-5% of deliveries being physical. Annual production is 3,300 tons(, a 1.6% easing) from a stockpile of 216,000 tons, and the asteroid 16 Psyche contains $10 quadrillion worth of metals.
The flow-to-stock ratio for gold is 62, while for Bitcoin after the 2024 halving it will be 120(, and after 2028), 240(. No more than $100 million worth of gold is sent globally in 10 minutes.

- Real estate: You never truly own it:
Real estate is the largest asset class globally at $393 trillion, but you don't own it; it's rent from the government via property taxes), with an average American paying $4,271 annually(, and stopping payments leads to confiscation.
Eminent domain): In Kelo v. New London (2005), courts allowed the seizure of homes for a private developer, but the project failed, leaving the land vacant.
Maintenance costs are 2-5% annually, selling takes months, fees are 6-10%, permits are needed for modifications, it's non-transferable, subject to rent and zoning laws. Meanwhile, Bitcoin: 12 words in the memory, borderless, invisible.

- Bonds: Lending to the worst borrowers:
The bond market is $140 trillion, "safe" but US debt is $38.4 trillion(, increasing by $6.12 billion daily), with interest costs exceeding $1 trillion in 2025(, triple 2020 levels), surpassing healthcare and defense. CBO forecasts debt-to-GDP at 156% by 2055, and Moody's downgraded ratings in 2025.
Sovereign defaults are common: 327 cases since 1815, Greece 7 times, Argentina, Russia, Lebanon. Duration risk: the 2022 BONDZ index fell 13%, and banks like SVB collapsed due to losses.
Japan: 238% debt-to-GDP, the Bank of Japan owns 46% of government bonds, creating a Ponzi scheme.

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