Hong Kong, March 21 (BNA): As crisis haunts the traditional world of stocks and bonds, bitcoin is suddenly looking like a safe haven.
The notoriously volatile cryptocurrency looks positively and energetically, just as a banking meltdown is pushing markets into the arms of recession.
Bitcoin is up 21% this month, while the volatile S&P 500 index lost 1.4% and gold gained 8%, according to Reuters.
“If you were to describe an environment that has seen consecutive bank runs because central banks are trying to fight inflation with rapid price increases, it’s very close to the hypothesis of owning bitcoin as you’ve heard before,” said Stéphane Ouellette, CEO of digital asset investment platform FRNT Financial.
The cryptocurrency has, for the time being, severed its ties to stocks and bonds and has been on the rise in gold, fulfilling at least one part of creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s dream — bitcoin could be a refuge for struggling investors.
Bitcoin’s 30-day correlation with the S&P 500 fell to -0.12 over the past week, with Measure 1 indicating that the two assets are moving into a lock-up move.
Bank sell-offs have wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value and forced emergency action by US regulators. The past two weeks have seen Silicon Valley bank and cryptocurrency lender Silvergate collapse, while Credit Suisse teeters on the brink.
WWA