[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Dan Morehead (댄 모어헤드), founder of crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, forecast that bitcoin (BTC) is trapped in a short-term range but will deliver performance that overwhelms gold over the long term.

According to blockchain media outlet CoinDesk on Feb. 3 (local time), Morehead said in a recent panel discussion with Tom Lee (톰 리), chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), at the Ondo Summit in New York that "in 10 years, bitcoin will overwhelm gold." He said fiat currencies known as stable assets lose about 3 percent of their value each year, which is like losing 90 percent of value over a lifetime. He added it is rational to invest in assets with a fixed supply, such as gold or bitcoin.

Morehead said bitcoin and gold trade by periodically switching relative advantage. "Gold pulled ahead for a while, but recently it is rebalancing again," he said. He analysed that inflows into bitcoin ETFs and gold ETFs over the past few years have been almost the same.

Views also differed on the market cycle. Tom Lee said he does not agree with claims explaining the current downturn as a "four-year cycle" theory. "This correction is not a simple cycle issue," he said. He said rising Ethereum network activity and deleveraging accelerated during the crypto plunge in October 2025 were a bigger shock than in November 2022.

Morehead said institutional investors' participation remains limited despite progress in mainstream adoption such as the launch of bitcoin ETFs. "A significant number of large asset managers running billions of dollars still do not invest in bitcoin or crypto," he said. "In a situation where institutional money has not come in in earnest, it is difficult to see now as a bubble," he said.

He also said most of the reasons institutional investors avoided crypto in the past have largely been resolved. "Previously, issues such as custody, regulation and legal uncertainty were big, but now they have improved to a large extent," Morehead said. "There is almost no reason left to avoid crypto," he said.

He also stressed the long-term performance of blockchain assets. "Blockchain-related assets have posted an average annual return of about 80 percent over the past 12 years, and they also have low correlation with traditional stocks," Morehead said. "There has been no asset class in history with this level of growth and diversification effect at the same time," he said.

Tom Lee said crypto infrastructure is already naturally permeating the financial system. "Stablecoins, tokenised assets and crypto-based neobanks are representative examples," he said. He predicted that people will use crypto in the future without even realising it is crypto.

There was also an optimistic outlook on the regulatory environment. "The United States is at a turning point in terms of regulation," Morehead said. "It is moving from an extremely negative situation to neutrality, and a clear regulatory environment will soon be established," he said.

Morehead cited the possibility of a competition among countries to secure bitcoin as a potential future catalyst for the bitcoin market. He predicted that if countries recognise that assets accumulated over centuries, like China's, can be frozen by decisions of U.S. financial authorities, some countries may decide that holding bitcoin is wiser.