I just came across an interesting assessment that Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, made about Bitcoin. The man certainly has a certain amount of wealth and influence in the tech world, so it’s worth taking his perspective seriously.

Wales doesn’t see Bitcoin as entirely pessimistic when you look closely. He admits that, due to its technical robustness, the cryptocurrency probably won’t simply go to zero—even if forks occur, the system should remain intact. However, he sees a fundamental problem: in his opinion, Bitcoin will not work as a real currency or as a reliable store of value.

What’s interesting is his long-term forecast. Wales expects that by 2050, the Bitcoin price could fall to under 10,000 dollars in today’s value—possibly even significantly below that. That would mean that, in the long run, Bitcoin retreats back to a pure level of hobbyists and collectors. He emphasizes that the wealth and market capitalization that Bitcoin has today are rather driven by speculation than grounded in fundamentals.

Wales’s conclusion is pretty clear: at its core, Bitcoin is a speculative asset, not a functioning means of payment. Interestingly, he also notes that even AI robots have not adopted cryptocurrencies on a large scale so far—which shows that practical use just isn’t happening.