Is Bitcoin a hard asset?

After sharing why bitcoin is part of my portfolio and why I believe it’s one of the best escape hatches from a broken monetary system, I got these two responses.

They’re fair reactions. Honest skepticism. And I welcome them.

Because these aren’t just questions about Bitcoin. They’re questions about what we trust to store value in a world where money doesn’t mean what it used to. In my previous essay, I explained why the US dollar is NOT a store of value and that if you want even a chance at a financially secure future, you must exchange dollars for assets that will outperform.

I wrote up an entire list of assets and listed Bitcoin under hard assets to own.

So let’s get into it: Is Bitcoin really a “hard asset”? Or am I fooling myself with digital hopium?

What Is a Hard Asset, Really?

Let’s strip the emotion out for a second. When people talk about “hard assets,” they usually refer to things like gold, real estate, land, or commodities. Tangible. Physical. Real.

But what makes something “hard” in the wealth sense?

It’s not the shine or the history, but rather the properties.

A true hard asset has a few key characteristics:

• It’s durable—it doesn’t degrade quickly or disappear.

• It’s scarce—you can’t easily create more of it out of thin air.

• It’s verifiable—you can prove it’s real.

• It’s resistant to inflation—its supply is constrained.

• It’s not someone else’s liability—you don’t rely on a third party to honor its value.

• It’s resistant to political seizure, censorship, or manipulation—the harder it is to confiscate, the harder it is to control.

Gold checks a lot of these boxes. So does real estate. So do some commodities.

But when you compare these characteristics side by side with Bitcoin, it stands out above the rest.

Bitcoin vs. Gold: Let’s Be Honest

If you’re a gold purist, I respect that. I own gold and lots of it. I believe it has a role to play.

But let’s run the comparison head-to-head.

Gold:

✅ Scarce
✅ Durable
❌ Difficult to verify purity without special tools
❌ Not easily divisible or portable
❌ Expensive and risky to store securely
❌ Vulnerable to government seizure or bans
❌ Subject to annual supply inflation (~1–2% from mining)
❌ Can be manipulated via paper derivatives (see COMEX, ETF flows)

Bitcoin:

✅ Absolutely scarce—only 21 million will ever exist
✅ Durable in a way nothing else is: math doesn’t decay
✅ Instantly verifiable on-chain, by anyone, anywhere
✅ Infinitely divisible and highly portable (can carry millions in your head)
✅ Can’t be seized or censored without private key access
✅ Zero inflation once issuance ends (and it’s already slowing. Its current stock-to-flow ratio is lower than gold and will eventually be zero)
✅ Immune to physical confiscation, market dilution, or central manipulation

Bitcoin is more scarce than gold, and it is easier to store, move, and authenticate.

And unlike gold, you don’t need vaults, guards, or a broker to access it.

In a globalized, digitized world, that matters.

“Backed by Nothing” Is the Whole Point

Here’s the most common critique:

“Bitcoin isn’t backed by anything. At least gold is physical. At least the dollar has the U.S. government behind it.”

This is a misunderstanding of what “backed” means.

The U.S. dollar is backed by… debt, political power, military power, and fading global agreements.

Gold is backed by thousands of years of human behavior, but it’s still subject to supply increases, political risk, and custody issues.

Bitcoin isn’t backed by a promise.

It’s built on proof.

It’s backed by:

• Energy (through mining and proof-of-work)

• Code (open-source, peer-reviewed)

• Math (scarcity through algorithmic issuance)

• Incentive structures (miners, holders, and validators all aligned)

• The most secure computer network in human history—supported by a global hash rate exceeding 500 exahashes per second as of 2025, which would require more energy and computing power to attack than any system ever built. It’s estimated that attempting a 51% attack on Bitcoin’s network would cost tens of billions of dollars and require access to a massive portion of the world’s total energy and ASIC hardware, making it practically and economically impossible.

No one can fake Bitcoin. No one can double-spend it. No one can “print” more. And no one can confiscate it unless you give them your keys.

That’s not “nothing.” That’s the most trustless foundation we’ve ever had for storing value.

In fact, its lack of backing from a government, corporation, or boardroom is precisely why it’s powerful.

I don’t know about you but I’m a “trust but verify” kind of guy… Bitcoin is the philosophy of “trust but verify” on steroids. President Reagan, famous for making the phrase “trust but verify” popular, would agree.

Gold Has History. Bitcoin Has Finality.

Gold has a 5,000-year track record.

But that track record was built in a world where governments didn’t have satellites, drones, and surveillance. A world where cross-border capital controls weren’t weaponized.

Gold works until it gets too obvious that you have it.

Just ask anyone who lived through:

• FDR’s Executive Order 6102 (forced gold surrender in the U.S.)

• India’s gold restrictions

• Venezuela’s capital controls

Gold can be seized, Bitcoin can’t unless you hand over the keys.

Gold can be stored, but only with risk.

Bitcoin can be stored in your head (literally, with a memorized seed phrase).

Gold is still real, valid and worth holding. But bitcoin is built for a world where freedom of movement, capital, and privacy are under attack.

It doesn’t matter if you’re for President Trump, or President Biden, or anyone else for that matter… I want you to imagine your least-favorite, or even most-hated politician having the power to control your freedom, purchasing, capital allocation decisions, privacy, etc.

Even your most-hated politician is powerless to control Bitcoin.

I Didn’t Always Believe This

When I first heard about bitcoin, I dismissed it. Just like a lot of people.

It felt intangible. Unproven. I couldn’t “touch” it.

But over time, the evidence stacked up:

• It survived multiple 80% drawdowns and came back stronger.

• It grew from $0 to a $2+ trillion market cap with no CEO, no central authority, and without violence or force.

• It absorbed attacks, forks, bans, and regulations and didn’t break.

• It onboarded institutional capital, nation-states, and major payment rails.

And it did all of this with a fixed supply, public ledger, and zero marketing budget.

That’s not hype. That’s resilience.

Bitcoin is still here because it is the hardest asset ever created, and it's designed to survive.

That’s what finally convinced me.

We’re Not Comparing Investments.
We’re Comparing Exit Doors.

This is what most people miss.

This isn’t about charts. Or year-over-year gains.This is about what survives when the rules change and the money breaks.

Ask yourself: if you needed to cross a border tomorrow with your wealth, what would you rather have?

Gold coins in your suitcase?

Or a string of words memorized in your head?

One gets confiscated. The other slips through.

One is heavy and obvious. The other is invisible until you choose to reveal it.

Bitcoin is the most asymmetric escape hatch ever built in a world of increasing surveillance, inflation, debasement, and financial control.

You Don’t Have to Worship Bitcoin But You’d Better Understand It

You don’t need to tattoo the logo on your arm, sell everything, and take the max orange pill.

But if you still believe bitcoin isn’t real because it’s not physical, or because it’s “backed by nothing,” then you’re playing a 20th-century game in a 21st-century world.

The dollar is inflating, the debt is compounding, the math isn’t matching, and the system is not built to save you.

Bitcoin isn’t speculation anymore.

Bitcoin doesn’t need your belief. It doesn’t need a boardroom. It doesn’t need a bailout.

It just keeps ticking, block by block, every ten minutes, without fail.

No one controls it. No one can inflate it. No one can stop it.

That’s not nothing. That’s the hardest asset ever created.

Double D

P.S. Even though Bitcoin got all the attention from the list I shared in my previous essay, it's not the only place I put my money. In fact, there are currently 12 ticker symbols I’ve shared with Premium Subscribers, and all of them are up except one, which is down less than 1%. We're currently outperforming the S&P by almost 3-to-1.

Congratulations if you're a Premium Subscriber who’s followed along. If you haven’t seen my latest recommendations, I urge you to consider upgrading to Premium below.

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