The US Dollar Has Lost 97% of Its Value Since 1913: Is Bitcoin the Way Out?

Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the US dollar has lost about 97% of its purchasing power, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U.

A 1913 dollar buys roughly 3 cents’ worth of today’s goods, meaning $1 back then is worth about $33 to $34 in 2026.

What 113 Years of Inflation Actually Looks Like

That figure is not a slogan. It reflects the official price index compounded over 113 years, through two world wars, the Great Inflation of the 1970s, and the 2021-23 spike. The 1971 end of gold convertibility accelerated the dollar’s stretch, and cash left idle was quietly taxed by inflation the entire time.

“Check out the biggest, kosher ponzy scam in recent history. The US dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. A $3 item in 1913 would cost $100 today,” one user said on X.

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Bitcoin was designed in response to that system: a 21 million-coin cap paired with a declining issuance schedule. It did not exist in 1913, so the comparison is not one-for-one. As a store of value, though, its record since 2009 has been extreme in both directions.

Early buyers saw their purchasing power explode. Later buyers, by contrast, endured drawdowns of 50% to 80% within single cycles.

As of early September 2026, Bitcoin trades near $79,852, well below its October 2025 peak of $126,080. Since its inception, the token’s price has soared more than 59,000%, and over full market cycles, it has beaten cash and often beaten gold.

Inside any single cycle, though, it can erase years of gains within months — the trade-off inherent to a scarce, non-yielding, narrative-driven asset.

How Institutional Access Changed the Story

Utility has reshaped Bitcoin’s role since then. Spot Bitcoin ETFs, approved in the United States in 2024, turned a bearer asset into a ticker that pensions, RIAs, and balance-sheet allocators can hold without managing private keys.

Those products have accumulated $55.62 billion in cumulative net inflows as of September 4, according to SoSoValue data, with total net assets across the category reaching $101.25 billion, equal to roughly 6.33% of Bitcoin’s entire market cap.

Adoption remains incomplete in several respects. Volatility stays high, regulation varies widely across jurisdictions, and energy and custody risks are real and unresolved. The US dollar still clears most global trade, prices most debts, and pays most wages worldwide. Bitcoin has not replaced that role as a unit of account.

What Bitcoin has done is offer savers an exit from a currency that official statistics say lost 97% of its purchasing power since 1913. Whether that exit functions as a genuine reserve asset, pure speculation, or some combination of both depends heavily on the investor’s time horizon.

Cash loses value slowly and predictably. Bitcoin can lose value fast, sometimes dramatically so, but over the long run, it has, so far, compounded gains faster than either cash or gold.

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