The advantages of holding bitcoin over gold have been publicized and debated countless times. These two digital assets, one a physical asset and the other referred to as the “digital gold”, have both gone head-to-head when it comes to which one is the better store of value. As the bitcoin crash raged on last week, the discussion is once again being had about the merits of holding a relatively stable asset such as gold compared to a volatile one such as bitcoin.

Gold Provides Cover

Over the past week, the price of bitcoin had declined more than 30%. This had led to a sea of red in the market as the rest of the cryptocurrencies followed suit. During this time, the year-to-date value of bitcoin had dumped significantly. This put the digital asset which had been outperforming its physical counterpart for quite a while behind it once more.

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Despite the year-over-year returns of gold being gown, it remained in the positive while that of bitcoin has declined into the red. As of Tuesday, gold is up 0.6% year-to-date, putting it in the green territory. As for bitcoin, the cryptocurrency is now down a whopping 55% on a year-to-date basis. 

The volatility of bitcoin has been a cause for concern for those in the traditional finance market. However, it has also been one of the biggest pulls for those invested in the asset. It had grown more than 50% last year to an all-time high of $69,000 before declining over the next six months to a low of $17,600.

BTC price trading below $21,000 | Source: 

While the sell-offs have rocked bitcoin, gold has not been as unfortunate. So when it comes to the argument of which of these digital assets serves as the better inflation hedge, gold has now come ahead of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Going Down?

Bitcoin’s recovery streak has been encouraging over the past couple of days. After hitting a low in the $17,000 territory, the recovery has been steady ever since, save a few dips here and there. With this has come a recovery above the 5-day moving average for the first time in the last week. Despite this, the selling pressure has remained high and more sell-offs are rocking the market. However, support is beginning to form above the $18,000.

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There are also the implications of the price of the digital asset falling below the previous cycle high for the first time ever. It has given credence to the school of thought that the digital asset has not reached its bear market bottom. Coupled with the fact that bitcoin has previously fallen at least 80% in all its previous markets, the bottom is likely to come in at around $13,000. Additionally, the bottom is expected to happen about 15 months after the previous halving which puts the bottom at some time in the 4th quarter of 2022. Bitcoin is trading at $21,313 at the time of this writing. It is up 1.93% in the last 24 hours with a market cap of $405.8 billion.

Featured image from Kinesis Money, chart from TradingView.com

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