Crypto Pushing Out Metals As Safe Haven?

I think that they are having some impact right now, but I don't think long term they will push out metals at all. The price shot up due to Paypal/Robinhood allowing people to easily bet on the price of bitcoin and the other cryptos, not because cryptos are actually becoming widely used for anything. I know some people who are buying on Robinhood because they see it as easy money right now, but they don't actually believe in bitcoin or plan to ever use it. So while there is a speculative bubble with crypto happening and unregulated market manipulation, there are many reasons that the cryptos won't retain value (in my opinion) over the long term, including the extremely low barrier to entry to make new cryptocurrencies, the huge amount of pollution and energy required not only to mine but to process transactions, the high cost of actually using the bitcoin to purchase something making it impractical(the average cost of a single transaction being around $5 for bitcoin currently), and so on. The single biggest risk for crypto though is that if the government decides to regulate crypto at all, prices will plunge. India is already considering banning private crypto and make its own digital currency.The fact that foreign governments/nationals that are adversaries of the US are heavily pursuing mining of bitcoin (N. Korea, Iran,Russia, China), that criminal activity is so easily facilitated with crypto, and that it is so easily pumped and manipulated right now, including by the world's richest man Elon Musk, all leads me to think that the government will be stepping in to regulate cryptos and reduce any threats they pose.

They're still speculative vehicles IMO. When, and if, the values stabilize is important if they're ever to be functional as currencies.

I also wonder whether they'll become as obsolete as 5-1/4" floppy discs. And how soon they'll be counterfeited. Not a matter of if, just when.

I agree with "winterfell" completely a utube I saw the other day showed a chart of gold and bitcoin together and they were acting inversely . If Musk had not purchased 1.5 billion of bitcoin where would it be priced now. This morning bitcoin looks to open down 15% . I have seen a deluge of utubes promoting copper silver nickel gold and platinum.Not only are they talking about owning physical but buying mining and exploration companies. When I first started investing a long time ago resource funds had a great 4 year run ending up gaining 200 to 500 % then they were flat for about 20 to 30 years.All commodities are breaking out now including grains , lumber and uranium .I think and hope we are entering a resource supercycle again. I have seen analysts I have not seen in 20 years showing up on utube all talking precious metals. Just my opinion but I think as well bitcoin will fade and metals are going to have a great run.

As someone who is pro-gold/silver & pro-Bitcoin, I see the PMs & Bitcoin as complementary assets to one another rather than competing. It's crazy there is even this debate given the global size of all stores of value is roughly $400 trillion. Bitcoin is just under $1 trillion in total value, gold is $10 trillion (not really sure what silver's total market value is).

The two of them together are a combined maybe $13-$14 trillion (with silver) compared to the other $387 trillion in overpriced equities, bonds, real estate, art, etc. So around 3.5% of all the stores of value in the world are in these two assets, & both the BTC crowd & Gold crowd piss & moan with one another rather than targeting the other 96.5%. Gold & Silver would still be manipulated with or without Bitcoin, we all saw it in 2011.

Bitcoin isn't going to replace gold, because governments own it & need it. The BTC people who think governments are going away are way too crazy. They're going to exist, but in a different form than they do now after we get through the hyperinflation heading our way.

I think precious metals people should remember that gold is a check on centralized power, but the past 150 years or so banks & governments have figured out a workaround via fixing the real world metal prices. They then fixed it via flooding the COMEX with endless paper claims. So they have beaten us all after gold starting breaking through in the 1970s. Given this history, we should all look at BTC as a 2nd layer of checking centralized power.

Everyone who gets giddy at the government trying to stop cryptos really should think bigger. First off, the government cannot stop Bitcoin. All you need is a computer to hook into the network, and the experiment of government trying to close the gates to the network only hurt that government. In Nigeria they're trying to prevent people from holding Bitcoin & its already failing because the local price of Bitcoin just rises. Not everyone everywhere has access to gold, and it's far easier for the government to close the liquidity of gold than it is to Bitcoin.

The government can set the price of gold if they really want, they've done it before. They cannot set the price of Bitcoin though, it will force governments to behave themselves, something that gold isn't able to do independently. There's still an ocean of overpriced garbage these two asset classes are going to eat through before its all said & done.

All it takes is one hack/exploit of the network for it to come crashing down. Don't think governments aren't trying to find one.


Notwithstanding my pessimistic long term view of Bitcoin, I do think it is hurting precious metals and is crowding out that same money that may otherwise be buying gold.

Bitcoin is much easier to buy these days than gold. I can go on my iPhone app and buy as much as I want with a few taps in Paypal or Robinhood or Cash App. Now there are fundamental differences in how you own Bitcoin between the apps, but that's another discussion. Good luck these days walking into a lcs and buying a gold coin for even close to spot; let alone if they have inventory (my local only had 1 gold buffalo and 1 AGE last I checked).

Sure I can buy the paper version of gold on the stock apps, but it's still much more complicated these days than buying Bitcoin with how easy apps like Robinhood and Cash App have made buying Bitcoin.

I suppose the main utility of Bitcoin is its anonymity and transactability across borders. For example, it is much easier for a drugs cartel to make payments in Bitcoins then walk around with a suitcase full of dollars or gold bars.

Then again, we should be mindful of how the rest of the world is looking at these things, not just through Western eyes.
For instance, gold is still highly regarded in Asia as a store of wealth among other things, even though many in the West may dismiss it as a useless brick. In the end however, three billion people in Asia will dictate what happens to it, not 600 million apathetic Westerners.

@IndianGoldEagle.... "Fed's will destroy cryptos if they become too large a threat to the dollar." I absolutely agree w/ your comment.

"Bitcoin could become 'outlawed the way gold was outlawed' in 1934, speculates Bridgewater's Dalio"....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/sav.../ar-BB1eVh33