'Bitcoin Has Failed'-Crypto Influencer Questions Entire BTC Thesis After 12 Years

Crypto influencer Ran Neuner said Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) failed its defining test as a store of value, questioning the entire thesis for the first time in 12 years after capital fled to gold instead of BTC during recent market stress.

The Store Of Value Failure

Neuner argued Bitcoin evolved from “peer-to-peer cash” into “digital gold” as the community fought for ETF approval and institutional access. 

When tariffs, currency tension, and fiscal instability finally hit, this was supposed to be Bitcoin’s moment to prove its store of value thesis.

“Instead, capital ran to gold,” Neuner wrote on X. “Institutions had access. There were no barriers left. That’s the uncomfortable part.”

The narrative collapse matters because Bitcoin abandoned the peer-to-peer cash vision in 2017 when the community rejected increasing block sizes. 

The market then shifted to the store of value narrative—Bitcoin as digital gold with limited supply, easily divisible, and better than the original.

However, when fear actually arrived, investors proved they were too scared to try the new digital store of value and ran for “old faithful gold” instead. 

This revealed that Bitcoin isn’t cash and didn’t meaningfully absorb the stress bid during the crisis.

The Energy Is Gone

Neuner pointed out that early evangelists have largely exited, retail participation sits at multi-year lows, and even aggressive weekly buyers can’t generate sustained momentum. 

The fight that united the community—getting Bitcoin into the system—is over because Bitcoin won.

“Now there’s nothing left to fight for because we won,” Neuner said in his YouTube video. “Bitcoin is in the system. Bitcoin is the system. And so all that energy, that passion, that power on Twitter, on Reddit, on TV, it’s gone,” he added.

Strategy’s Michael Saylor continues buying nearly $1 billion weekly, but Neuner called this “the ultimate legal pyramid scheme”—offering 11% yield on a non-yielding asset to raise more capital. 

Moreover, even billions in weekly purchases can’t generate a meaningful pump since October 10.

The Three Scenarios

Neuner outlined three possible outcomes. First, Bitcoin could die a slow death as a big memecoin without earnings, store of value function, or cash utility. 

Second, Bitcoin eventually becomes a store of value but needs more time than one year of institutional access—meaning this cycle fails but future cycles succeed.

Third and most unlikely, Bitcoin becomes the de facto currency for AI agents conducting trillions of microtransactions daily. These agents need instant, programmable settlement rails that traditional banking can’t provide—creating a race between the dollar and Bitcoin.

Image: Shutterstock