Thomas Daniels
According to blockchain analyst Willy Woo, the surge in institutional Bitcoin holdings may echo the path gold took prior to 1971, when President Richard Nixon suspended the dollar’s convertibility into gold—effectively ending the Bretton Woods system.
“If the U.S. dollar is structurally weakening and China is rising, it’s possible the U.S. could make an offer to all corporate treasury holders to centralize Bitcoin holdings, then digitize them,” Woo cautioned during the Baltic Honeybadger 2025 conference. “History could repeat itself, as it did in 1971.”
As of July 31, corporate crypto treasuries have surpassed $100 billion in total value. Bitcoin-focused firms alone now hold 791,662 BTC, worth approximately $93 billion, representing 3.98% of the circulating supply, according to Cointelegraph.
A New Point of Vulnerability
Woo warned that while institutional adoption is critical for Bitcoin to surpass gold and replace the U.S. dollar as a global standard, concentrated holdings create a point of vulnerability. He noted that widespread corporate adoption is unlikely until “large gatekeepers of capital” fully embrace Bitcoin.
Two weeks earlier, Cointelegraph reported that 35 publicly traded companies now each hold more than 1,000 BTC, with combined balances exceeding $116 billion as of July 25.
Preston Pysh, co-founder of The Investors Podcast Network and Bitcoin venture fund Ego Death Capital, echoed the concerns. “They’re going to take the Bitcoin because it’s going to have an institutional custodian that does not want to go to jail,” he said, suggesting that private entities with significant Bitcoin reserves could be the first targets in any nationalization effort.
Risk Meets Opportunity
Despite the threat of government intervention, Woo sees enormous upside potential. He estimates Bitcoin could ultimately represent a $100 trillion market, up from its current $2 trillion valuation at just 16 years old.
This projection aligns with Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who has previously forecast Bitcoin’s long-term market size at $200 trillion, describing it as a “sustainable and scalable trade front-running hyperbitcoinization.”
Hyperbitcoinization—a theoretical scenario where Bitcoin becomes the dominant global currency—remains the ultimate bullish case for advocates, though the path may be fraught with regulatory and geopolitical risks.
