This past week, the 20 millionth of the 21 million bitcoins that will ever exist was mined, leaving fewer than one million left to be mined over the coming decades. This milestone was reached while the digital asset market is in a daunting bear market. The short-term volatility of the digital asset Bitcoin (BTC) is extreme, but fear of that volatility masks the historical trajectory and long-term technological promise of the asset. The relatively low price provides a strategic entry point for Israel to begin accumulating Bitcoin for its national reserves.

Bitcoin is increasingly seen as what gold has been for centuries—the apex commodity store of value—of the digital age. The next epochal revolution in money is arriving. In this current bear-market dip, Israel has a historic opportunity to exercise foresight and position itself as a leader in the next era of money. Even if Bitcoin only has a modest chance of becoming a major store of value asset, the upside is so large that a small allocation is rational. Israel should therefore buy the Bitcoin dip.

Now is a perfect opportunity for Israel to stock up on bitcoin. The value of BTC in fiat terms has swung wildly, recently trading around $65,000 (₪201,500) per bitcoin after crashing roughly 45% from its all-time high last October around $126,000 (₪390,600). 

The economic case for urgency is straightforward. Only 21 million bitcoin will ever exist, and the supply is permanently fixed in computer code, and therefore the value cannot be inflated away through monetary policy. Moreover, the amount of bitcoins yielded from mining halves over time, reducing the rate of new bitcoin issuance over time and increasing the asset’s scarcity. Demand comes from genuine utility: a decentralized, borderless store of value, peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries, a hedge against fiat instability, and true financial portability.

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