Adam Back: Bitcoin's market capitalization should reach 200 trillion USD

Adam Back, a symbol of the cypherpunk movement and a veteran British cryptographer, recently made a shocking statement that the market capitalization of Bitcoin “should be around 200 trillion USD.” He argued that the continuous money printing globally will cause a strong flow of capital towards scarce assets like Bitcoin.

Back’s statement exceeds all traditional expectations, as currently:

• The total market capitalization of the S&P 500 is about 40 trillion USD – representing 40% of the global stock market.
• Gold, the leading safe-haven asset, is also only at 13 trillion USD.
• The global GDP of all countries combined is approximately 105 trillion USD.
• The global real estate market is about 300 trillion USD.

Adam Back is no stranger to the Bitcoin community: he is the person quoted in Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper and received an email from Satoshi himself in August 2008, before Bitcoin was born. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that he started buying BTC – and since then he has always maintained a “permabull” stance, meaning he is extremely optimistic about Bitcoin.

His viewpoint is similar to that of Tim Draper, the famous venture capitalist, who once said that Bitcoin could rise “to infinity” if the USD depreciates significantly due to inflation or a loss of confidence.

Although the figure of 200 trillion USD seems unrealistic at present, Back asserts that this is entirely feasible in a world flooded with money printed by central banks.