Gundlach – CEO of DoubleLine Capital, an investment firm with more than $130 billion in assets under management – now says bitcoin could be a better bet than gold.
Gundlach, who’s previously said “I don’t believe in bitcoin,” tweeted Thursday that “bitcoin may be the stimulus asset. It doesn’t look like gold is.”
Gundlach’s change of stance comes on the heels of bitcoin’s dizzying rise from $10,000 to $52,000 seen in the past 4.5-months.
The cryptocurrency has charted a 10-fold rally in the past 11 months, offering a significantly higher return than gold amid the massive inflation-boosting monetary and fiscal stimulus delivered by authorities worldwide to counter the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown. The precious metal reached a record high of $2,075 in August 2020 and has been trending lower ever since.
Gundlach noted he had been neutral on gold for the last six months, while formerly a “gold bull.” He previously said bitcoin was in “bubble territory” when it rose past $23,000 in early January.
Bitcoin has continued to rise, helped along by publicly listed companies such as Tesla, a Fortune 500 firm, and MicroStrategy, which have adopted bitcoin as a reserve asset in the past few months.
In December, JPMorgan analysts said that bitcoin’s rising popularity could have a bearing on gold’s price.
While crypto community expect more corporates to follow Tesla’s decision to purchase bitcoin, Wedbush Securities and JPMorgan believe widespread adoption will remain elusive for some time.