The portion of gold's market cap attributable to consumer and industrial demand is miniscule compared to the portion attributable to its wealth protection funct

The portion of gold's market cap attributable to consumer and industrial demand is miniscule compared to the portion attributable to its wealth protection function. Bitcoin is a better mousetrap for that use-case and the market is figuring that out. The market's decision about what to use as a store of value is a market-wide Schelling point decision based not around "what asset has underlying value" as any underlying value is quickly dwarfed by the magnitude of the value that needs to be stored, but instead the Schelling point decision is based on what asset has the best properties for money. If you look at what has been money in the past, you'll see examples (like giant stones) that were clearly not based on underlying industrial demand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory)