Bitcoin set to ‘massively’ outperform gold over 10 years, Pantera’s Morehead says

NEW YORK — Bitcoin may be stuck in a challenging market phase, but long-term investors should keep their focus well beyond the current cycle, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead said Tuesday.

Speaking alongside Bitmine Immersion Chairman Tom Lee at the Ondo Summit in New York, Morehead said bitcoin is poised to dramatically outperform gold over the next decade.

“In 10 years from now, bitcoin will massively outperform gold. That’s very obvious,” Morehead said.

He framed the argument around currency debasement, noting that fiat money steadily loses purchasing power over time. “Paper money is being debased at 3% every year, and that’s called stable money,” Morehead said. “Over your lifetime, that’s roughly 90%. It’s totally rational to invest in something with a fixed supply, like gold or bitcoin.”

While bitcoin and gold tend to move in cycles, Morehead said investor attention often rotates between the two assets. Gold has recently taken the lead, but he noted that inflows into gold and bitcoin exchange-traded funds have been roughly comparable over the past several years.

Lee echoed the bullish outlook and pushed back on the idea that crypto is locked into a rigid four-year cycle. He argued that recent market behavior suggests a more complex dynamic, pointing to rising activity on Ethereum and the scale of deleveraging during the October 2025 crash.

“That was a bigger wipeout than November 2022,” Lee said, adding that the drawdown challenges traditional cycle-based explanations.

Morehead also argued that institutional exposure to crypto remains extremely low, even after the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs. “All these $100 billion asset managers have zero bitcoin or crypto,” he said. “You can’t have a bubble when the median institutional allocation is literally zero.”

According to Morehead, many of the historical barriers that kept large institutions on the sidelines are steadily disappearing. He cited improvements in custody, market infrastructure and regulatory clarity as reasons for his continued optimism.

He also pointed to blockchain’s long-term performance, arguing that its combination of strong returns and low correlation to equities makes it a uniquely attractive asset class. “There’s never been a better asset class in history,” Morehead said.

Lee agreed, emphasizing that blockchain technology is increasingly becoming embedded in everyday financial activity. “Crypto starts to become invisibly more part of everyone’s lives,” he said, pointing to stablecoins, tokenized assets and crypto-powered neobanks. “People may start using crypto without even realizing they’re using crypto.”

On regulation, both speakers said the U.S. is approaching an inflection point. Morehead described the shift from an openly hostile environment toward something closer to neutrality. “It is night and day to have clarity,” he said.

Looking ahead, Morehead said geopolitical forces could emerge as a major catalyst, including what he described as a potential global race among nations to accumulate bitcoin. Countries holding vast reserves in traditional assets may eventually rethink that exposure, he argued, given the risks of political and financial control.

“It’s super crazy to have centuries of savings stored in an asset that can be canceled,” Morehead said. “It’s far smarter to own bitcoin.”