Holding Bitcoin Can Lead to Wealth, but the Process Can Feel Frustrating for Investors

Bitcoin experienced a volatile past week, briefly climbing past $111,800 on May 23 before undergoing a pullback to around $107,000 the following day.

An expert on crypto has said that holding Bitcoin can feel frustrating most of the time—but it’s deflationary by design, built to rise in value over time. A concept many still struggle to understand.

Thomas Fahrer, co-founder of Apollo, presented a logarithmic price chart of Bitcoin covering a range from 2011 to a projected 2031. The chart features a curved trendline, which captures Bitcoin’s long-term exponential growth pattern.

Some of the most notable instances where Bitcoin retested and respected this curve include the February 2015 crash, where BTC found support around $212. Another critical retest occurred in late 2020, when Bitcoin bottomed around $5,000. Most recently, in the 2022 market panic, Bitcoin dipped to around $16,000 after hitting a peak above $67,000 in late 2021.

However, despite these periods of high volatility and corrections, the chart shows Bitcoin maintaining a consistent upward trajectory over time. Logarithmic scales, often used for assets with exponential growth, help contextualize Bitcoin’s price action in the long term.

This presentation aligns with a broader narrative that Bitcoin, although prone to sharp pullbacks, has historically moved higher across longer timeframes.

Fahrer touched upon this resilience, highlighting the psychological difficulty many investors face. He described how holding Bitcoin often feels frustrating 90% of the time, despite the asset’s historical returns.

Bitcoin’s Monetary Design Contrasted with Fiat Currency

Zooming in on Bitcoin’s monetary model, Fahrer contrasted it with fiat currencies. While the U.S. dollar and other government-issued currencies increase in supply and lose value due to inflation, Bitcoin has a fixed cap of 21 million coins. Its issuance rate declines every four years through programmed halving events, reducing the number of new coins entering circulation.

Fahrer described Bitcoin as deflationary money, designed to increase in value permanently. He also noted that the concept remains difficult for the human mind to fully grasp.

Adding to this financial perspective, a Bitcoin investor known on the social media platform X as Carl Menger shared a visual comparison of purchasing power changes from 2020 to 2025. The data shows that $100 held in U.S. dollars would decline to $76 by 2025 due to inflation.

In contrast, $100 invested in Bitcoin in 2020 would have grown to $1,201 by 2025. This side-by-side snapshot showcases the diverging outcomes of holding fiat money versus a purportedly deflationary digital asset like Bitcoin.

Changing Perceptions of Wealth Creation

Finally, financial literacy author Robert Kiyosaki addressed his social media followers, noting how Bitcoin has simplified wealth creation. He explained that individuals no longer need to rely on traditional assets like gold to accumulate wealth. Based on historical returns, even a small investment in Bitcoin over the past 13 years could yield substantial gains.

Kiyosaki also addressed a common misconception about needing to own a full Bitcoin. He emphasized that owning as little as 0.01 BTC in 2010 could have delivered a staggering 6,000% return by 2023. In contrast, investing a small amount in the stock market over 60 years would only yield around 100 times the initial investment.

To put this in perspective, Kiyosaki stated that an investment of $100 in Bitcoin in 2010 would have grown to $6,400 by 2023. In comparison, investing $1,000 in the S&P 500 in 1960 would yield around $150,000 to $200,000 today.