According to Bloomberg News, the negative correlation of Bitcoin with commodity markets is a cause of excess fodder for the critics related to its suitability as an inflation hedge.
The hedging inflation
If a 50-day coefficient for Bitcoin and gold is considered, it is approximately minus 0.4, the lowest since 2018. In contrast, a standard measure for the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index and the token is negative and at a multi-year nadir. A reading of 1 indicates that assets are moving in lockstep, and minus 1 implies the reverse.
As such, while the demand for the portfolio is seen to buffer against the price pressures catalyzed commodity performance in the current year, Bitcoin has moved the other way.
According to a senior market analyst associated with Oanda Asia Pacific Pte, Jeffrey Halley, it is pretty likely that Bitcoin is tested during high inflation, rising rate environment, the first time, and the investors are opting for tradition against a new frontier. He also stated that gold had been an inflation hedge for the millennia.
The advocates of Bitcoin remain unmoved, arguing that the digital currency will prove how worthy it is with time and partly thanks to the capped supply of as many as 21 million tokens.
Founder of MicroStrategy Inc., Michael Saylor, stated in a recent interview on Bloomberg Television that he cannot think of anything better to place the company during an inflationary environment than to change the balance sheet into Bitcoin.
As for the present, Bitcoin remains tightly correlated to NASDAQ 100 index, and investors have dumped the token and the technology-heavy gauge in 2022 out of fear that the stringent US monetary policy might hurt investors’ risk-taking appetite, reports Bloomberg News.
The NASDAQ 100 is down by about 15% this year, whereas the largest cryptocurrency in the world has dropped by 16%. As of 11:55 am in London on Monday, the token plunged by 3.3%, falling to a one-month low of approximately $39,000.