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The institutional money floodgates have opened for Bitcoin, and one prominent crypto investor thinks the digital asset’s journey is just getting started—despite already trading north of $126,000.
Franklin Jiang, co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, told CNBC on Oct. 6 that Bitcoin’s current $2 trillion valuation could eventually swell to match gold’s $22 trillion market cap, representing potential upside of more than 10 times from current levels. His reasoning? Bitcoin is simply “a better version of gold.”
“It’s digital, it’s cheaper to transport and transact with, and it’s global and permissionless,” Jiang said. “You don’t have to carry around a heavy rock.”
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The numbers backing Jiang’s optimism are staggering. Total inflows into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds since their launch have now exceeded the inflows into the Nasdaq-100 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), according to Jiang. That’s a remarkable milestone that underscores just how quickly institutional investors have embraced crypto exposure through traditional investment vehicles.
BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK) has emerged as the clear winner in this ETF race. The asset management giant’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) is approaching $100 billion in assets and has become BlackRock’s most profitable ETF product, Jiang told CNBC.
This surge in institutional participation marks a dramatic shift from just a year ago, when many financial professionals remained skeptical about crypto’s place in diversified portfolios. “Headwinds have become tailwinds for crypto,” Jiang said, particularly when it comes to equity investors embracing digital assets.
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Despite Bitcoin’s meteoric rise, Jiang argues the market is far from saturated. A Bank of America survey conducted a few weeks ago revealed that more than 60% of investors still have zero exposure to digital assets, he said.
“The idea that digital assets are ‘too late in the game’ is not true,” Jiang told Reuters. “Most people still don’t own them.”
