Recently, the price of Bitcoin has seen a significant drop, causing concern among investors and market analysts.
Despite this recent decline, Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, offered an outlook that may reassure enthusiasts of Bitcoin. Hayes discussed historical economic cycles and their impact on Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset.
He classifies historical economic cycles into local inflation cycles and broader global ones. The BitMEX co-founder characterized the current economic environment as a local cycle marked by major geopolitical and monetary policy changes.
Within this cycle, Hayes pointed to the transition from a US-dominated unipolar world to a multipolar one with rising powers such as China, Brazil and Russia. He emphasized that governments are increasingly using financial repression and large-scale money printing to finance deficits, which has a negative impact on asset valuations and wealth preservation.
During such periods, Hayes argues that Bitcoin outperforms traditional assets. Unlike gold, which relies on nature to maintain its ledger and has a slow physical transfer, Bitcoin’s ledger is maintained through a blockchain, allowing for fast transactions. In his view, this makes Bitcoin a more attractive safe-haven asset than gold in local cycle conditions.
Finally he added:
Bitcoin is better while gold is worse. This is why Bitcoin has stolen some of gold’s thunder from 2009 to now.
Peter Schiff, a well-known critic of Bitcoin and prominent economist, has once again targeted the leading cryptocurrency.
gFidelity Investments’ Jurrien Timmer, the director of global macro, has weighed in on the ongoing debate about Bitcoin’s potential to surpass gold in market value. While he acknowledges that Bitcoin could eventually rival gold, he doesn’t foresee this happening anytime soon.
Arthur Hayes anticipates Bitcoin reaching an eye-catching price point before the market cycle peaks, suggesting a significant rally fueled by monetary expansion.
Ethereum’s blockchain underwent a significant shift on September 15, 2022, moving from a proof-of-work (PoW) security model to proof-of-stake (PoS).