Steve Forbes, the long-time editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, has poured cold water on Bitcoin's rise, declaring in a new YouTube video that the cryptocurrency is "not yet" the new gold. The publishing scion acknowledges Bitcoin's "tear" in 2020 thanks to fears of central bank money printing, but he is far from convinced it can dethrone the precious metal.
'Steak One Day, Dog Food the Next' – Forbes Slams BTC Volatility
In a three-minute segment titled "What's Ahead," Forbes read from prepared notes, saying: "The biggest booster of the 'Bitcoin boom' is the fear that the Federal Reserve and other central banks are printing too much money." However, he immediately pivoted to criticism, stressing that Bitcoin's value swings are too wild for it to function as a stable store of value.
"Bitcoin only works best when it has a stable value," Forbes argued. "But its fluctuations are like steak one day, dog food the next, fillet the day after that." He contrasted BTC's unpredictability with traditional commodities, singling out gold as the inflation hedge that has worked for over 4,000 years. "Gold is the best insurance against inflation," he concluded.
Scarcity Debate: Why a Fixed Supply Is a Flaw, Not a Feature
Forbes's most provocative attack targets Bitcoin’s core value proposition—its fixed 21 million supply cap. He insisted: "Bitcoin's arbitrary supply limit will severely hinder its future usefulness." In his view, the inability to increase supply in response to demand makes Bitcoin less flexible and less useful as money compared to gold.
Elaborating on gold's supply dynamics, he said: "The issuance of gold increased about 2% a year. That keeps gold rare but not too rare." This framing directly challenges the Bitcoin maximalist mantra that finite supply guarantees long-term value. Forbes implies that some elasticity is actually superior to rigid ceilings, especially if Bitcoin is to ever serve everyday transactional needs.
Institutional Echoes: Fidelity President Shares Similar Caution
Forbes is not alone among traditional finance figures in questioning Bitcoin's readiness. Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, recently told media that while Bitcoin may one day become a store of value, it hasn't earned that title yet. "We use the word 'potential store of value' as Bitcoin is still extremely volatile, and by any standard perhaps would not achieve the mantle of a true store of value," Jessop explained.
Despite these bearish opinions, Bitcoin's market data shows continued institutional adoption. The tension between innovation and legacy thinking remains stark: Forbes sees supply caps as a handicap, while the crypto community views them as the ultimate protection against monetary debasement. The clash between gold's ancient track record and Bitcoin's mathematical rigidity is unlikely to be resolved soon, but the debate itself underscores how far digital assets have come—and how far they still have to go.