Introduction
The traditional investors from the last few months are trying to understand the unprecedented financial system. The world is suffering from economic uncertainties, where 20% of the US workforce lost their jobs due to the COVID pandemic situation. At the same time, the precious metal “gold” hit an all-time high in this 2020 summer and stayed on a hike for a long time ever since.
The gold rush in the market might be due to various reasons – US dollar fall, US-China deteriorating relations, and general global economic crisis. Also, cryptocurrency investors advocated that Bitcoin perhaps can beat gold as the safe-haven, but researchers pointed out the fact that BTC is not so performing. As with the stock market fall, the market worth of Bitcoin was also down – which means that BTC can’t be classed as a safe-haven asset.
Bitcoin and Gold Market Risk
Bitcoin and gold have emerged as a leading investment unit to stabilize the economic downfall. In the finance industry, there is no guarantee for returns on investment, so there is always high risk. It’s not true that the value of gold will always rise because, in 2012-2015, it was dropped by $20,000 per ounce. Similarly, BTC value bounces up and down. Gold is not so volatile as Bitcoin currency. Gold is acting as a safe-haven from the last 100 years, and bitcoin is in the market from the last decade.
Can Bitcoin be called a Safe-Haven Asset?
Amid all economic crises, bitcoin price hardly reached $9,011, and that too, with a high risk. So, it can’t be considered as a safe-haven asset due to the following two reasons:
Reason 1
The Bitcoin volume in the market is so small to validate the concept of the safe-haven asset. A safe-haven in the traditional market is the asset whose price rises typically. When there is any risk, the investors simply shift their money from risky assets to a safe one to avoid the loss and to retain their investment value.
In the traditional market, Bitcoin’s share is less than $200 billion US dollar, which is not enough to perform as a safe-haven asset. It lacks federal regulations for transactions, and there is a high risk of scams in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency industry. That’s why the Securities and Exchange Commission also rejected the Bitcoin ETF proposal.
Reason 2
Bitcoin can’t be accessed or used in the environment, having no internet connection. In extreme places, you may be cut-off from the cryptocurrency exchange and Bitcoin traders due to limited internet connectivity. For example, due to any major strikes, most of the time, the government shut down the internet accessibility to slow down the protests and all.
In the meantime, due to no internet connection bitcoin wallet and exchange system get hampered instantly. Therefore, bitcoin can’t be used in the emergency situation, so it can’t be considered as an alternative currency or safe-haven asset.
Conclusion
Gold is a risky asset because of sharp falls, and bitcoin, too, has speculative risk factors. In the case of the safe-haven concept, gold is already declared as a safe-haven asset in the traditional market, while Bitcoin is battling for the title. A wide range of economic forces across the world doesn’t impact its value, as BTC trade executes independently. Despite the global recession and high unemployment, BTC is doing great in the market. But for now, we believe that this is not enough to qualify as a safe-haven asset.