The post The Price of Bitcoin May Face These Two Key Risks – Bitwise CEO appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

The price of Bitcoin’s rapid climb, from $40,000 to $75,000 on spot‑ETF approval, then above $100,000 under a pro‑crypto administration, has captured headlines. Yet Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley warns that the price of Bitcoin may run into two structural obstacles before its next leg up. He points to rising competition from high‑return alternatives and a waning “digital gold” narrative among institutions. In Q2, Bitcoin‑linked exchange‑traded funds flipped from $3.3 billion in outflows to nearly $10 billion of inflows, per Bold Report data. By contrast, gold ETFs saw demand fall 40%, from $30 billion to roughly $15 billion over the same period. That divergence underpins Bitcoin’s 34% outperformance versus gold since April, though gold has clawed back a 10% edge on BTC since mid‑May, according to the BTC/gold ratio on TradingView. ETF flows matter because they channel institutional dollars into liquid, regulated vehicles. “Institutional appetite remains robust,” Horsley said. But he cautioned that inflows can shift if other assets offer more attractive risk‑adjusted returns. Bitwise CEO Reveals Key Hurdles to Price of Bitcoin Horsley’s first concern is that investors hunting for 10× returns may look beyond Bitcoin. He noted a growing universe of decentralized finance projects, layer‑2 tokens, and new blockchains promising exponential gains. That competition could dilute capital into smaller, higher‑volatility tokens. “Most investors and allocators are very busy. They’re constantly presented with opportunities, including things that could 10x,” he wrote, adding that “why do they *need* to turn their attention to Bitcoin, which for many is still a complicated topic.” DeFi lending tokens, NFT platform tokens, and Ethereum layer‑2 coins have delivered returns north of 200% in recent quarters—far eclipsing Bitcoin’s 58% year‑on‑year gain, per CoinGecko. The second hurdle is a possible erosion of Bitcoin’s “apolitical store‑of‑value” story. Early backers likened BTC to digital gold, an inflation hedge unmoored from any government. But Horsley argues…

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Filed under: News - @ June 21, 2025 6:17 pm