Speculation or digital gold? Which Bitcoin concept is most popular?

This study analyzed responses from 2,549 cryptocurrency participants to the anonymous Coingecko Bitcoin Survey between August 22 and September 11, 2025. The results are for reference only. 58.1% of respondents said Bitcoin is digital gold, by far the most popular narrative. Since Bitcoin's early days, the idea that Bitcoin is similar to gold as a store of value has existed, stemming from its scarcity design with a maximum supply of 21 million. Since then, the "Bitcoin as digital gold" narrative has gained widespread traction, reinforced by its inherent appeal, Bitcoin's price appreciation, the "Lindy Effect," and its limited programmability. On the other hand, only 14.9% of participants still adhere to Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision of Bitcoin as peer-to-peer (P2P) cash. Satoshi's white paper, titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," and subsequent statements repeatedly emphasized the idea of ​​Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. However, with the emergence of more easily understood frameworks and other blockchain-based payment solutions, this narrative has been drowned out. Another 17.1% of respondents believe Bitcoin is a bet on the crypto industry and blockchain technology as a whole. This was the second most popular narrative, with slightly more participants believing Bitcoin represents a broader range of investments or trading assets than Satoshi Nakamoto's vision of P2P cash. Meanwhile, the view that Bitcoin is a speculative, high-risk asset was shared by only 9.9% of respondents. Even so, this suggests that a significant portion of the population still views Bitcoin as a high-risk, high-reward asset, likely due to the potential for significant devaluation. As expected, within the crypto community, participants who identify as investors are more likely to believe the "Bitcoin is digital gold" narrative (64.4% of investors surveyed), compared to traders (47.9%) or builders (45.6%). In contrast, traders and builders are more likely to believe the other three narratives. For example, traders are almost twice as likely as investors to believe that Bitcoin is merely a speculative asset. It remains to be seen how institutional-led mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and efforts to build upon it will impact its popularity in the coming years.