Can you wait 10 years?

In my view, it wouldn't be shocking to see Bitcoin's price grow from where it stands today ($65,000) to reach the coveted $1 million mark in a decade. If this happens, it means the world's dominant cryptocurrency rose by 1,438%. On an annualized basis, that figure translates to a 31% return.

In the past 10 years, Bitcoin's price has increased by 100-fold. Getting to $1 million by the summer of 2036 implies a much slower pace of growth. As a more mature asset, the deceleration is the right perspective to have.

Bitcoin's projected 15-fold gain would almost certainly outperform every other major asset class. This wouldn't be a surprise, given that it's still a relatively young technology that theoretically has massive upside.

The bull case

At a fundamental level, Bitcoin is a self-operating monetary network. It issues and distributes new currency without the need for a central bank or financial institutions. It relies on math and code to run.

However, before Bitcoin can become a more widely used medium of exchange, it must be fully adopted as a prominent store of value. This is what will mainly drive its value in the coming decade.

Here's where the comparison to gold adds insight. The current value of all above-ground gold is estimated to be $28.2 trillion. With its history as a leading store of value spanning thousands of years, the precious metal is well ahead of Bitcoin in terms of adoption for this use case. But this could change.

Bitcoin is scarcer, with a hard supply cap of 21 million units. It's easily portable. It can be used in transactional settings, and it's divisible to eight decimal places.