Investors looking for an escape from yuan devaluation are flocking to Bitcoin as well as traditional fallbacks, says Chris Reinertsen.
Bitcoin (BTC) really does function as a safe haven asset in 2019, another source has told mainstream media as the United States–China trade war rages.
Bitcoin increasingly important amid economic uncertainty
Speaking to Forbes in an interview on Aug. 8, Chris Reinertsen, chief marketing officer of blockchain consultancy Rhythm Technologies, said investors were pouring into Bitcoin in addition to traditional safe haven assets.
“There is a flight of capital to safe-haven assets across the board, which now includes Bitcoin,” he told the publication.
He added:
“Throughout the last few years, we have been seeing the trend of Bitcoin increasingly becoming fundamentally correlated to more macro moves as increased economic uncertainty in the world increases.”
Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation
As Cointelegraph reported, Reinertsen is far from alone in his hypothesis. The latest dispute involving China, which saw the U.S. government brand Beijing a currency manipulator, appeared to fuel a fresh upturn in the Bitcoin price this week.
Thereafter, investors were happy to go on record about the cryptocurrency’s appeal as a hedge against volatility in fiat markets.
“It’s been an amazing run, it’s fantastic technology; some people are using it as a way to hedge against inflation,” the CEO of consultancy firm Agecroft Partners, Don Steinbrugge, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Reinertsen likewise pointed to China’s deliberate devaluation of the yuan to an 11-year low against the dollar as a factor driving money into Bitcoin.
His view on China more broadly was shared by Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire, who similarly mentioned macroeconomic motivation while explaining Bitcoin’s sudden bull market this week.
“I think the broader theme of, you know, Bitcoin specifically, crypto more broadly participating in these global macro forces is becoming more and more clear,” he said.
