Bitcoin rose sharply today, while major stock indices languished.
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Bitcoin prices surged today, climbing roughly 20% as the major stock indices experienced substantially weaker gains.
The world’s most prominent digital currency rose to $6,393.76 around 1:45 p.m. EST, according to CoinDesk data.
At this point, the cryptocurrency was up 19.8% for the day, and had climbed more than 60% from its recent low of less than $3,900 reached on March 13th, additional CoinDesk figures show.
In contrast, major U.S. stock indices have not shown compelling gains today, with the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up less than 1% since opening, Google Finance data shows.
[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]
“A combination of factors are driving the market higher today,” said analyst Denis Vinokourov, head of research for London-based digital asset firm Bequant.
Specifically, he pointed to “profit taking flow in the options market” as well as “some degree of stabilisation of the liquidity conditions, with the cost of liquidity continuing to come off the extreme levels observed over the recent sessions.”
He also spoke to the vastly different performance of bitcoin and stocks, which had been falling together recently.
“While Bitcoin may have been trading in lockstep with risk assets and in particular S&P500, it is not the first that the the digital asset has established some degree of correlation to traditional assets,” said Vinokourov.
“Everytime, this correlation proved to be short lived,” he noted.
“This deviation is another win for an asset that prides itself on its non-correlated and asymmetric performance,” Vinokourov stated.
Catherine Coley, CEO of Binance.US, also weighed on the recent changes in the global asset markets.
“Last week’s nosedive in crypto markets was part of a universal rush to cash among investors in response to unprecedented panic and uncertainty, but Bitcoin’s appeal as a safe haven and deflationary asset is once more apparent amid the raft of fiscal and monetary stimulus from governments and central banks around the world, reminding investors just how precarious the existing financial system really is,” she said.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex and Tether, took a different tack, describing recent events as providing validation for the entire space.
“The blockchain industry can and will survive through tremulous current events,” he stated.
“The current situation shows that the global economy needs transparency and blockchain,” noted Ardoino.
“You can not keep printing money out of thin air leaving our children to pick up the debt. Bitcoin is the answer,” he stated.
Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether and EOS.
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