London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

The world's biggest crypto fund manager says bitcoin is the next step in the evolution of money - and 'I can't use it to buy coffee' is no longer a sound argument | Currency News |  Financial and Business News | Markets Insider

The world's biggest crypto fund manager says bitcoin is the next step in the evolution of money - and 'I can't use it to buy coffee' is no longer a sound argument | Currency News | Financial and Business News | Markets Insider

Bitcoin is not a fad that will fade away, said Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments. Investors understand that "buying Bitcoin and putting it in their portfolio is meant to be a store of value, inflation hedge, a digital gold, a digital form of money". Investors should not get hung up over the fact that there are only 21 million Bitcoin that will ever exist, because each coin has a 100 million units.
Investors like the fact they can buy a fraction of the coin and add to their position over time, the crypto asset manager pointed out.
Bitcoin is not a fad, and not being able to use it to buy a cup of coffee is not a reasonable argument, according to Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments, the largest digital currency asset manager.

Growing involvement of major players in the financial services realm "really speaks to the staying power of the asset class and validates other people getting involved," he told Business Insider in an interview.

Sonnenshein, whose firm oversees almost $11 billion crypto assets, said the global pandemic this year was another key driver behind Bitcoin investments. Grayscale saw investors with different motivations and appetites to allocate the digital token to their portfolios this year.

Investors are no longer hanging on to the idea that because we're not using Bitcoin to buy a cup of coffee, it has failed as a currency, Sonnenshein said.

"I think they understand today that buying Bitcoin and putting it in their portfolio is meant to be a store of value, inflation hedge, a digital gold, a digital form of money that is much better suited to the digital world we live in today versus historical stores of value like gold which would have been certainly much more applicable to a world characterized by physical exchanges. They view it as one of the most important next steps in the evolution of money and what constitutes a store of value."

After the pandemic brought money markets to a grinding halt earlier this year, Bitcoin's sustained power and demonstration of resiliency shows that it was one of the best-returning investments, he said.

For skeptics who question the token's validity across conventional financial institutions, he said: "Bitcoin was born outside of the traditional financial services realm, it was not born into an arena where it was to be traded on a stock market or that it was going to be custodied in the same way that stocks or bonds are."

Sonnenshein thinks people should not get hung up over the fact that there are only 21 million Bitcoin that will ever be in circulation.

Each coin is divisible to the eighth decimal place, meaning that there are a 100 million units inside each Bitcoin. That is one of the asset's features investors like because they can buy just a fraction of the coin and add to their position overtime, Sonnenshein said.

"When you think about how many millionaires or billionaires or even just what the global population is, there's 21 million Bitcoin times the 100 million units within each Bitcoin," he said. "There's a possibility for anyone who wants to get involved to be able to own some piece of the Bitcoin protocol."

The world's most popular cryptocurrency has had a wild ride this year. It is up 117% so far in 2020, and its price exploded above $18,000 this week.

The price began surging higher in October after PayPal announced it would allow its users to buy, sell, and hold the token. Jack Dorsey's payments company Square invested in nearly 5,000 Bitcoins in October, US tech firm Microstrategy bought 16,796 coins, and UK startup Mode also joined in on the frenzy. Crypto bulls say it is only a matter of time before it is widely adopted.
Comments

Oh ya 5 year ago
Don't even mention Bitcoin and gold in the same breath. One is real money and has been for 5000 years that you can tuck into the bank of Sealy and the other is a dot on a computer that a hacker or your government can take in a heartbeat. Bitcoin is worth less than the dollar which is backed by nothing. The States says that they have 8000 tons of gold backing it but nobody has seen that since 1950. Maybe gold plated tunstin at best. Remember folks if you can't hold it in your hand you don't own it. Gold in hand has no counter party risk. And ask yourself a honest question, what has driven up bitcion 117%this year. Yes dealers flipping and driving up the price to fleece more money from the stupid people

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×