Bitcoin never actually topped $100,000 once you adjust for inflation, Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn says. Thorn — global head of research at Galaxy — pointed out on X that while bitcoin’s nominal price briefly traded above $126,000 in October, that peak doesn’t hold up when converted into constant 2020 dollars. “If you adjust the price of bitcoin for inflation using 2020 dollars, BTC never crossed $100K,” he wrote, adding that the inflation-adjusted high was $99,848 in 2020-dollar terms. (Current nominal price cited: $87,944.23.) The distinction is simple but important for investors: nominal price is what bitcoin cost at the time in that year’s dollars; real price adjusts for inflation to show purchasing power relative to a fixed base year. Thorn chose 2020 as the baseline because it sits just before the Federal Reserve’s major liquidity injections in response to the Covid crisis — a logical reference point for measuring dollar debasement since then. That recalibration can be read two ways. Bulls could argue the inflation-adjusted peak makes the recent rally less “parabolic” than it appears in nominal terms, implying there may still be room to run without excessive froth. Bears, conversely, will point out that bitcoin has underperformed on an inflation-adjusted basis and question its narrative as a hedge against money printing — a role critics often still reserve for gold, even though gold itself has struggled to outpace inflation over some multi-decade stretches. Bottom line: adjusting bitcoin’s price for inflation changes the narrative around how “big” past highs really were, and it adds nuance to debates over crypto’s role as a store of value in an era of aggressive monetary policy. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

#BTC