Bitcoin currently trades near $64,523, nearly 45% below its October 2025 all-time high of $126,080. Meanwhile, stablecoin supply is reaching record levels, surpassing $310 billion. This shift highlights Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's recent admission that Bitcoin has diverged from Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision.
Bitcoin's Shift From Medium of Exchange to Store of Value
In a discussion with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath on the People by WTF podcast, Armstrong acknowledged that Bitcoin failed to become the everyday digital cash Nakamoto envisioned in the 2008 whitepaper. Instead, it evolved into a digital gold asset. Despite attempts to enable faster payments through solutions like the Lightning Network, these efforts never gained broad adoption. Armstrong explained that Bitcoin's capped supply incentivizes holders to hoard it, expecting future appreciation, which undermines its role as a currency for daily transactions. also Bitcoin’s price volatility discourages spending.
Stablecoins Fill the Payment Gap Amid Regulatory Support
Stablecoins have emerged as the practical medium for digital payments, with dollar-backed tokens such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC dominating the space. USDT alone holds $184 billion, while USDC accounts for $73 billion of the total market cap. Armstrong credited the 2025 GENIUS Act for providing legal clarity and fostering trust in these tokens within the United States. Much of the stablecoin activity now occurs on blockchains like Base and Solana. Contrary to viewing Bitcoin’s role as a failure, Armstrong considers its evolution into digital gold a natural outcome aligned with its design limitations.
