Mark Bristow, president, and chief executive officer at Barrick Gold in a recent interview said that the recent hype and price surge of Bitcoin is mainly due to anxious and confused traders worried about the crumbling financial ecosystem investing heavily in the digital asset. He said,
“One thing that is clear is that the world has not managed this pandemic well,”
“Investors are confused and anxious and there’s this response trying to offset what is a risk in devaluation – massive devaluation – in the traditional ways of investing and retaining your wealth. One of them is currencies have not been only depreciating, but you can’t get much out of it when you put that money into the bank”
Bitcoin price rally that started towards the last quarter of 2020 has seen top cryptocurrency price rise over $50,000 owing to significant institutional influx added with the retail demand. The rising price has propelled bitcoin to become the new inflation hedge as institutions have started using it as a treasury reserve asset over Gold and the US Dollar. This has made many claim Bitcoin to be the new gold, however, gold proponents like Peter Schiff and now Barrick Gold has discarded these claims and believe the frenzy is not driven by real investors.
Gold Proponents Fail to Acknowledge Bitcoin’s Growing Stature as Inflation Hedge
At present more than 15 publically traded companies have added Bitcoin to their portfolio that includes the likes of Tesla, MicroStrategy, Square, and Grayscale. While traditional financial giants such as Black Rock, the world’s largest asset manager, and BNY Mellon, America’s oldest custody bank have decided to integrate bitcoin based on growing demand.
Many traditional asset managers who swear by gold not so long ago have started cutting their exposure in gold to invest in Bitcoin. However, despite the growing demand for bitcoin in the traditional market Gold bugs fail to recognize the rise.
Now that #Bitcoin has hit $50,000 I must admit that a move up to $100,000 can't be ruled out. However a move down to zero can't be ruled out either. While a temporary move up to $100K is possible, a permanent move down to zero is inevitable. If you don't want to gamble buy #gold.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) February 16, 2021
Barrick Gold with a market cap of over $36 billion does not see any intrinsic value in bitcoin as Bristow explained,
“Many times in my career people have suggested that gold doesn’t have real value. It’s never worked out that way. It’s one of the most consistent performers out of all the asset classes,” he said.
“I’ve always said, ‘Have you ever seen someone put their hand in their pocket and pull out a bunch of bitcoins, and hand it over the counter?’ It doesn’t happen.”
