Celestial Column Bitcoin Tulip or Gold

[천자 칼럼]  Bitcoin, tulip or gold

The keyword of the international financial market in the second half of this year was the weakening of the US dollar. It is attributable to the’unlimited quantitative easing’ of the dollar, the key currency, as the corona crisis becomes serious. The common sense of this floor is that when the dollar value fluctuates, the price of gold, which is a shelter, rises.

But somehow, these days it’s a completely different aspect. The dollar’s value has fallen by 7% in the last four months, but in the same period, the gold price has plunged by 20% rather than rising. Since the beginning of human history, it has been treated as’money’, and even after the appearance of the dollar, it is indescribable to gold, which has enjoyed the status of’two major safe assets’.

Instead of swaying gold, an emerging asset is the 11-year-old virtual currency’Bitcoin’. Bitcoin price exceeded 30 million won during the intraday two days in a row. In the second half of the year, it increased three times and six times compared to the year-round low in March.

It is the second’investment frenzy’ following 2017, which is remembered as the buzzword’gazua’, but this rally is quite different from three years ago. Three years ago,’ant’ as the main axis was comparable to the 17th century tulip speculation. Now, world-class’big hands’ such as Renaissance Technologies and Grayscale are leading the market.

Payments, an essential function of money, are also witnessed great progress. PayPal, the world’s largest electronic payment company, launched a service to buy, sell, and store bitcoins right from the app two months ago. Of the 26 million PayPal merchants, 65% accept Bitcoin as a payment method. Professor Raguram Rajan, who served as the governor of the Central Bank of India, diagnosed that’Bitcoin is similar to gold in that many people value it.’

Bitcoin’s speed is all-round, stimulating the boom in digital currency (CBDC) development at central banks in each country. CBDC uses blockchain technology and is similar to virtual currency, but the difference is that it is guaranteed by the central bank. China’s progress is particularly noticeable. In April of this year, a pilot project was started in China, and this month, it began testing in Hong Kong, a non-yuan currency. It is interpreted as a signal to build a’comfort block’ through’one-to-one-ro’ countries. In this way, Bitcoin is being summoned in the middle of the US-China currency war.

Unlike’Unstable Coin’ Bitcoin, which has an unstable value, Facebook’Libra’, a’stable coin’ linked to the dollar, is also a big variable. It is currently unclear whether Bitcoin will become gold or tulip. Only time will know. What is clear is that those who affirm bitcoin as’fraud’ or’gold’ are highly likely to be scammers or robbers.

Editorial Writer Paik Kwang-yeop [email protected]

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