Bitcoin is still trading below half of its all-time high price record, while the S&P 500, QQQ and gold continue to regularly set new records. The key reason for this prolonged underperformance was formulated by Tether adviser Gabor Gurbacs. In his view, the value of the flagship cryptocurrency is literally being “drained” by the degradation of the discussion itself inside the industry.
Instead of building strong infrastructure and developing distribution, a significant part of the crypto space has been captured by “tourists” and creators of overtly weak, derivative products focused exclusively on clickbait and fast hype, says Gurbacs.
He draws a hard line between today’s market and the crypto community of the pre-2017 era. The early Bitcoin era was based on cypherpunk principles, the concept of “hard money” and professional capital markets operators.
“These were deeper, more principled and mission-oriented people. If I had one wish, I would want the real-world asset tokenization boom to have happened in 2017 instead of the ICO boom,” the Tether adviser noted.
Why is Bitcoin stalling?
The main paradox of the current cycle lies in Bitcoin’s desynchronization from traditional defensive and technology assets. Institutional capital that entered the crypto market has faced an abundance of speculative “noise,” which prevents long-term value from being retained inside the ecosystem.
Pressure on the BTC price is also being intensified by a local excess of supply. Last week, net capital inflow under the “institutional absorption versus early holder distribution” model showed the worst result of the cycle. The cumulative balance for this metric has fallen to -154,169 BTC since the peak in October 2025.
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Nevertheless, Gurbacs emphasizes that Bitcoin will still win in the long term. The current problems are not related to the technology, but to the quality of those trying to speculate on it.
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