Can bitcoin legitimately claim to be the ‘new gold’? In today’s LBMA webinar, the latest in our digital gold series, Sakhila Mirza (General Counsel, LBMA) discussed these ideas with Charlie Morris (Founder, ByteTree Asset Management) and James Butterfill (Investment Strategist, CoinShares).
“Gold is the king of commodities – but bitcoin has many similarities,” explained Charlie. “Bitcoin is a risk on gold, and gold is a risk off bitcoin. If you hold the two together you get a natural portfolio balance. Bitcoin plus gold is BOLD.”
James agreed that while bitcoin isn’t an easy concept to grasp, investors are certainly catching on and are starting to seriously consider bitcoin as an asset. “As a hard asset it offers growth exposure," James Said. “Bitcoin is essentially gold with a growth component.”
The panelists agreed that there is no need to replace gold, given gold has a deep-rooted financial network in the world of finance. “Bitcoin is an idea that is, among many things, trying to replicate that, but it will never replace gold,” said Charlie.
Listen to the full webinar to hear the full discussion which also touched on the generational divide between digital natives and digital immigrants, how the concern of loose monetary policy has sparked the hunt for hard assets, and the impact of bitcoin on the environment (ESG).