Bitcoin and gold are zooming, which is not new, because the things people trade in go up and down. These two asset classes don’t interest me, and from time to time, I marvel why people invest in these. Is the current bull run in the two more or less the same? The answer is, mostly, yes. However, I’ll point out something that is different.
Gold and Bitcoin are both useless asset classes that produce nothing. In origin and nature, these couldn’t be more different. Gold is the simplest form of wealth to understand; if it’s physical gold, it’s worth something. It has been used as a store of wealth and currency for millennia. Bitcoin is quite the opposite. In physical sense, it does not exist; it is entirely a technological construct. Fifteen years after its invention, relatively few people understand what it is and why it’s worth anything. I don’t know how many people genuinely understand what a blockchain, token, or NFT is, or what a crypto transaction actually does.
Yet, in global finance, both are functionally the same. They are both functioning as currencies that are being used as havens from the rain of US dollars, which has now become a flood. Despite their fundamental differences, convergence in their function as safe havens reveals a broader narrative about diversifying assets in times of economic uncertainty. The deluge of US dollars can potentially safeguard their wealth against inflation and devaluation. At least, that’s the theory.
The US government is now adding nearly trillion dollars of debt every 100