By Darren Parkin
Something big seems to be stirring in the Bitcoin market. I’m preparing for a considerable upward swing in value of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Why? Well, partly because even The New York Times – one of the greatest, most-trusted and most-read publications anywhere – and, crucially, a long-time, high-profile critic of crypto, is now acknowledging the inherent value of Bitcoin.
Their Tuesday headline read: “Currencies around the world are tumbling. Except Bitcoin.”
Normally, the NYT runs with sneering, derogatory pieces about cryptocurrencies and crypto enthusiasts. Along such lines as: “Crypto Crashes, Wall Street Wins” and “A Poor Country Made Bitcoin a National Currency. The Bet Isn’t Paying Off.”
However, there seems to be a major u-turn of opinion happening at the publication, which has more than 30 million unique hits a month on its website.
It is now highlighting that Bitcoin has risen 6.5% over the past seven days, bucking the trend as a strong dollar sinks other currencies, including the pound.
They’re right to point out that the crypto is holding strong as other currencies devalue amid slowing economic growth, inflation is running hot and interest rates are being hiked.
They even quote Sven Henrich, the founder of a markets research firm: “You know we’ve reached a unique time in history when #Bitcoin suddenly is less volatile than fiat currencies.” It’s worth pointing out too that Henrich was one of the most vocal bears during the last bull market.
In effect, the NYT seems to be acknowledging – finally – that as more and more people see their savings and investments being devalued more aggressively by central bank and government policies, the enormous benefits of a decentralised currency are laid bare.
The apparent reversal on Bitcoin is similar to other u-turns of institutions and household name investment legends that I recently wrote about in CryptoAM.
That piece was triggered by Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, a $10 trillion asset manager, who once referred to Bitcoin as “an index for money laundering”, but recently partnered with a major crypto exchange to provide its institutional investors with access to digital currencies.
Despite seeming to suddenly recognise Bitcoin’s clear value and potential in the global financial system, the NYT couldn’t quite help themselves having a knock.
They end the otherwise buoyant article with “But zoom out further, and the picture looks more frightening for crypto bulls. Bitcoin has lost more than half its value in 2022.”
This is churlish.
Bitcoin remains the best-performing asset class in the world, and has consistently ranked amongst the best for both traditional and crypto investment sectors over the last few years.
Looking a bit closer at its returns compared to other top tech names over the five years, we see Bitcoin has 355.22% higher returns than Amazon, 321.97% more than Google, while the asset out-performed Microsoft with returns of 182.65% and overshadowed Apple by 166.76%.
Despite the NYT’s small punch at the end of the piece, I cannot help but think that recognition of Bitcoin’s recent stability as other major currencies collapse, such as the pound, can only be the start of a more direct and honest appreciation.
This is bullish for Bitcoin.
The post I think it’s bullish to see the New York Times recognising Bitcoin as strong while other currencies fail appeared first on CityAM.
