Bitcoin just broke through the $1 million mark. Over the past decade, this digital asset's annualized return far exceeds that of government bonds, enough to make any traditional financial asset pale in comparison. But this also sparks an interesting phenomenon: in 2025, institutional investors, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds still allocate large amounts to government bonds, sometimes even selling Bitcoin to switch to bonds.

Seems contradictory, right? Actually, the logic behind it is quite clear—high returns are just numbers on paper; survival comes first.

Why are government bonds so attractive to large capital? They have a special status: the "risk-free rate" anchor in the global financial system. First, they are the safest, with almost zero default risk (unless the country goes bankrupt). For institutions managing hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, government bonds are like a "safety cushion"—a stable place to store cash and wait for opportunities.

Now, look at Bitcoin. Although it is touted as "digital gold," in the eyes of large institutions, it is fundamentally a high-volatility risk asset. From October to December 2025, Bitcoin plummeted 36% in six weeks, evaporating hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. What does this volatility mean for those managing large funds? It means uncertainty, it means risk.

So the question isn't about the high or low yield, but about the rationality of risk pricing. The primary need of large capital has never been to get rich quickly, but to preserve principal and achieve stable growth. Government bonds offer them certainty; Bitcoin offers them possibility—each catering to different risk preferences and survival logic.