Bitcoin is once again at the top of the financial ladder. New evidence suggests that the currency has surged by close to 30 percent since quarter one of 2020, and that it has also outperformed many leading assets such as gold, silver, and platinum.
Bitcoin Is Still the Financial Leader of the Year
While tools like gold are usually highly valued by investors everywhere, the asset has not experienced the same price swings as bitcoin over the early part of the year. In March, for example, the coronavirus really began to stretch beyond the initial Chinese laboratory it was created in and reached foreign soil in the United States, Australia, and Europe. From there, the financial markets the world had come to rely on began to suffer greatly.
Mid-March saw the rise of what has come to be known as Black Thursday, a period in which several of the world’s leading cryptocurrencies dropped heavily in value overnight. Bitcoin, for example, ultimately made its way down into the high $3,000 range, a near-70 percent fall from the more than $10,000 figure it was trading for in mid-February.
However, the currency has managed to regain much of what it has lost. At press time, it is trading for over $9,200, though it has graced the $10,000 range once or twice in the past two months.
Gold, by contrast, did not exhibit similar price swings. The asset initially saw itself trading in the $1,300 range once the coronavirus hit. While this was bad, it wasn’t long before gold made its way back up to $1,700, which is around where it was prior to the pandemic. Bitcoin gained several thousand dollars back. Gold only gained $400. There is a massive difference between the two, and thus far, bitcoin is leading in terms of strength and resilience.
Many analysts are not surprised by the news surrounding bitcoin. Ryan Watkins – a bitcoin analyst at Messari – explained in a statement:
Given that equities are now near, or in some cases above, their highs reached in February, it’s not surprising to see bitcoin do the same… Gold is bitcoin’s most aspirational asset. Like bitcoin, gold is a scarce commodity whose value is derived almost entirely from its monetary premium.
Bitcoin is also continuing to make headway with its recent drop in volatility. A Bloomberg report issued in early July suggests that the world’s leading digital currency by market cap has reached new lows when it comes to volatility, and that these levels are the smallest they’ve been since the currency’s meteoric rise to $20,000 in late 2017.
Volatility Goes Down, Price Goes Up
Mike McGlone, who co-authored the report, mentioned:
Volatility should continue declining as bitcoin extends its transition to the crypto equivalent of gold from a highly speculative asset… We expect recent compression to be resolved via higher prices.
