Bitcoin Hedge Appeal Increases for Investors Hit by British Pound Fiasco as Trading Volumes Skyrocket

Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss unleashed her mini budget on investors causing a section of them to stampede from the British Pound. It caused them to move closer to cryptocurrency. The mini-budget was not on a welcome note for the investors as all their strategies lay aside after the announcement. However, it turned fruitful for cryptocurrency which was looking for better opportunities to spring.

The research firm CryptoCompare revealed that the trading volumes between bitcoin and the pound witnessed a jump of 233 percent in September when compared with the previous month. On a similar platform Euro also witnessed a hike of 68 percent while trading between cryptocurrencies.

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The Chief Investment Officer at Tyr Capita, Ed Hindi stated that such a huge rise in the bitcoin volume of the currency of a developed country was witnessed for the first time. The market data firm Kaiko revealed that post-Friday budget shock British pound fell to its lowest ever against the dollar, however, the sterling and bitcoin trading volumes spiked to a record high of 846 million pounds.

In the meantime, bitcoin experienced the lowest volatility compared to the whole year. March 2020 witnessed the peak of safety turning US bonds into a safe haven according to a report rolled out by the ICE BofAML U.S. Bond Market Option Volatility Estimate Index.

In the past months, US Treasuries have come across market ructions creating a volatile background exceeding the volatility of bitcoin as well. The 10-year note of the US treasury and Bitcoin are now hovering at around 21.

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The crisis scenario

One of the major USPs of bitcoin was its protection ability against currency depreciation and inflation. The aforesaid narrative could not gain ground as greater institutional adoption pointed towards cryptocurrency trading in lockstep along with traditional risky corners of the financial market. A big question arises- whether the investors are ready to approve bitcoin as a hedge coin.

The British pound witnessed similar instances where Russian and Ukrainian investors jumped into bitcoin as soon as it came under pressure. Experts jotted it down as an instance where small investors felt ease in buying bitcoin rather than entering gold or FX markets.

The chief investment officer at IDX Digital Assets, Ben McMillan stated that Bitcoin has never been a “flight to safety” but a “flight from crisis” asset even when GBP was not as weak as rouble.

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Few market contenders stated that savvy traders obtaining benefits from arbitrage opportunities from changes in the bitcoin prices too affected the sterling flows.

Bitcoin Price experienced a downfall of 58 percent this year. However, the safety plays of gold and US bonds went down by 10 percent and 15 percent respectively. Additionally, Sterling too reported a loss of 16 percent and the S&P500 reportedly went down to more than 21 percent. In recent weeks, bitcoin hovered around the $19000 mark and stabilized when compared to its counterparts.

The bitcoin and sterling trading volumes have now fallen back o their previous levels as they were before the mini-budget. Few CryptoCompare analysts stated that the British pound may recover grounds post reversal of UK government fiscal plans.

on the contrary, several other cryptocurrency watchers are of the opinion that the September Surge was merely a reflection of the enduring appeal of bitcoin as an asset out of the mainstream finance.

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