“Ten years ago, if you bought $10,000 of long‑term U.S. Treasury bonds and reinvested dividends, you’d have $9,793 today.
If you bought Bitcoin instead, it would be worth $2,125,344.”
Economist and The Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous highlighted a stark contrast in long‑term performance:
“Ten years ago, if you bought $10,000 of long‑term U.S. Treasury bonds and reinvested dividends, you’d have $9,793 today.
If you bought Bitcoin instead, it would be worth $2,125,344.”
What This Comparison Shows
- Long‑term U.S. Treasuries:
- ~$10,000 → $9,793 (real loss of capital even before inflation)
- Bitcoin:
The gap illustrates the difference between:
- A debt‑based, inflation‑sensitive asset
- A fixed‑supply, high‑volatility but high‑conviction asset
Over the past decade:
- Interest rates rose sharply, crushing long‑duration bond prices
- Yields failed to keep up with inflation for long stretches
- “Risk‑free” did not mean “return‑free of purchasing‑power loss”
Bitcoin benefited from:
- Adoption growth from near‑zero institutional participation
- A hard supply cap of 21 million coins
- Network effects compounding over time
- Increasing recognition as a store‑of‑value asset
The trade‑off, of course, was extreme volatility along the way.
Important Caveats
- This is a backward‑looking comparison, not a forecast
- Bitcoin’s past returns were aided by early‑adoption effects
- Treasuries serve different purposes (liquidity, collateral, stability)
Still, the contrast challenges assumptions about where long‑term value preservation has actually occurred.
Bottom Line
Saifedean Ammous’s comparison underscores a defining feature of the past decade: the traditional “safe” asset failed to preserve value, while a new, volatile digital asset dramatically compounded it. For many investors, that divergence has reshaped how risk, safety, and long‑term strategy are defined.
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