Bitcoin and the entire crypto space has caught a solid bid this morning, pushing the cryptocurrency back over $7,000 without any apparent catalyst or major news behind the move.
However, according to Andrew Zatlin of Moneyball Economics, one possible explanation is emerging as likely: Bitcoin is becoming the new safe trade.
As Zatlin explains, echoing what we first said in September 2015, emerging markets are continuously using bitcoin (BTC) as a way to get their money of their respective countries.
Crypto currencies are attractive to individuals in less developed economies for a few reasons:
- Transaction costs are the same as gold. BTC’s higher price volatility is offset by gold’s higher conversion fees
- Liquidity favors BTC
- BTC only requires access to the internet
- Easier to transport and hide $20,000 of BTC offsets gold’s bulkiness
As recent events in Turkey and Iran show, hard currency and precious metal confiscation is a very real threat. Crypto is now a very real alternative.
Turkish citizens flocked to bitcoin as the Turkish lira continues to plummet. The lira is down nearly 40% this year alone. An insane drop for a currency.
In dollar terms, gold continues to trade lower as bitcoin catches a bid.
Here’s a chart of bitcoin demand from within Venezuela
The Emerging Markets can be grouped into two categories: those that are adopting BTC and those that are panic buying. Russia is an example of a late adopter.
Examples of panic buying: Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Hungary, India, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Venezuela.
Here’s Chile:
Here’s Columbia:
Here’s Hungary:
Here’s India:
Here’s Mexico:
Here’s Peru:
And here’s the Philippines:
One signal coming from BTC: indication of underlying economic/capital strength.
It’s still a bit too early to assign a definitive value for regional BTC demand. But the fact that millions of people around the world are flocking to bitcoin is a sure sign there is a value of it.
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