More than seven years ago, Warren Buffett called Bitcoin (BTC) “rat poison,” a financial mirage, he warned, defined by wild and unpredictable price swings. 

Recent events appear to prove his point. After reaching an all-time high of over $126,000 in early October, Bitcoin’s price plummeted 36% to around $80,600 by late November. It has since recovered somewhat to about $92,800 in early December, but the volatility remains constant. What’s especially notable is how little it took to spark such a drop: an average of just $3 billion in daily trading—0.15% of Bitcoin’s total issued supply of 19.95 million tokens—was enough to shake investor confidence over a single month. 

This kind of plunge is nothing new. Over the past decade and a half, Bitcoin has experienced a number of  major crashes, losing between 70% and 99% of its value in 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2021. To put it simply, the Bitcoin edifice has always stood and continues to stand on shaky ground.

So, will the “rat poison” ever expire? Will Bitcoin finally stabilise? For now, its history suggests we shouldn’t hold our breath. 

The numbers, however, tell only half the story. Bitcoin’s significance is linked by its fanatical adherents to:

• Its appreciation from a humble $0.003 in March 2010 to its current price.
• Its permanence, supported by its widespread purchase—it is estimated that some 500 million people hold Bitcoin directly and through exchange-traded funds, or through institutions.
• Its perceived invulnerability, on account of its finite nature

For all that, it still falls short as a means of transaction settlement, sustainable investment, and real source of value.

First, despite the vision articulated in 2008 by the pseudonymously named Satoshi Nakamoto in a white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, Bitcoin never really gained widespread acceptance as a medium of exchange. While famously used on 22 May, 2010 to buy two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in Florida, its role has shifted. Since that time, on account of regulatory proscription in the US and being able to enable incognito transactions, BTCs have been linked more to illicit activity than everyday commerce. As recently as October 2025, for instance, the US government seized $14 billion in Bitcoin from Cambodia’s Prince Group over allegations of a massive crypto scam—just one example in a long history of arrests and confiscations.