Gold Is the ‘Real Bitcoin’ Says Long-Time BTC Bear After Precious Metal Hits Nine-Year High

Boris Schlossberg, the managing director of FX Strategy at BK Asset Management and a long-time bitcoin bear, has joked gold is the “real bitcoin” when commenting on the precious metal’s rise to a near nine-year high.

Schlossberg’s comments came on CNBC’s “Trading Nation,” where said stimulus form global central banks that fuelled a fiscal expansion is going to make its way into the economy and drive up inflation, encouraging central banks to hold rates low in response.

During the show, he said:

I guess gold is the real bitcoin. Ultimately I think what’s happening is the market is taking implicit bets that inflation is starting to pick itself back up, and I think there’s a really good reason why the market thinks so.

The price of gold broke through the $1,800 barrier earlier this week as investors bet on the precious metal amid the coronavirus pandemic and central banks pouring in stimulus to cushion the economic fallout it’s causing.  

According to analysts the U.S. dollar is losing power, and will continue to do so if the Federal Reserve keeps on injecting liquidity into the market. A weaker dollar benefits commodities like gold and silver. The former has notably been seen as a safe haven for thousands of years.

Bitcoin is often seen as “gold 2.0” because it shares some of the precious metal’s best features, but is a digital currency that improves upon some of its shortcomings. Yet, the flagship cryptocurrency has been trading between the $9,000 and $10,000 marks since May, even though the Fed has been injecting liquidity into the market.

Speaking to CNBC Schlossberg added that central banks are “still going to have to keep rates very, very low” because their goal is to “maintain momentum, to maintain expansion as much as possible.” Theoretically, this should also benefit BTC, but the cryptocurrency appears to be struggling to break out of its current range.

Schlossberg added:

So they’ll suppress interest rates, inflation will go a little bit higher, and of course gold loves nothing more than real interest rates going lower and lower and lower.

In this environment, the analysts sees gold move up to test is $1,920 all-time high seen back 2011. Bank of America, as CryptoGlobe reported, raised its 18-month price target for gold to $3,000 back in April.

Earlier this month, CryptoGlobe reported bitcoin’s volatility index dropped to a 15-month low, suggesting a big move is coming in the near future. The last few times BTC’s 30-day volatility index dropped, the price either moved upwards or downwards significantly.

Featured image by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash