Adam Back: Bitcoin's next adoption wave will be powered by banks and pensions

Back, the British cryptographer who runs Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream, called it the asset's third phase of international adoption in an interview this week tracked by Wu Blockchain. The first phase, he said, ran from 2011 to 2019, when individuals bought in and miners spun up the network. BTC crossed $1 in that stretch and later climbed into the hundreds of dollars.

The second phase started in 2020 and turned institutional. Bitcoin set a record $69,000 in November 2021 and pushed above $100,000 in August 2025, as spot ETFs handed traditional investors a simple on-ramp and, in Back's framing, validated the asset's legitimacy.

What separates the coming wave, according to Back, is who's holding the door open. Major investment banks and professional asset management channels are preparing to drive adoption further, and their participation hasn't fully landed yet. Some of those banks have already floated a 2% to 4% Bitcoin allocation in their model portfolios.

Retail-adjacent vehicles are moving too. Mutual funds, pension funds and insurance products now offer customers indirect Bitcoin exposure, and Bitcoin treasury companies are increasingly filling the same role.

Back expects the world's largest pools of capital to do the buying. He forecasts Bitcoin reaching parity with gold this cycle, which he pegs at $1.5 million per coin.