Dear Reader,
Are you buying gold or crypto?
The last couple of years have been hard on crypto, but gold hasn’t performed as well as some might expect.
Just by looking at this chart, however, we can clearly see the winner:
And just this week, Bitcoin hit $35,000, its highest level since 2022.
The crypto jitters began at the end of 2021, when Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said the company was moving to cash in order to weather the coming “crypto winter.”
Crypto’s had a choppy ride since then, so as it turns out, that was a good move.
This move to cash spooked crypto investors, signaling that maybe the perma-bulls aren’t so confident in the staying power of crypto after all. Join Wealth Daily today for FREE. We’ll keep you on top of all the hottest investment ideas before they hit Wall Street. Become a member today, and get our latest free report: “How to Make Your Fortune in Stocks”The Best Free Investment You’ll Ever Make
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Remember when Jesse Powell, then CEO of Kraken — a leading crypto exchange — predicted Bitcoin would reach $100,000 by the end of 2021?
Here’s what he said: “I think we could see $100,000-plus a coin late this year or early next year.”
He also said Bitcoin would reach “infinity” by March 2022.
Now he’s not so sure where crypto is headed.
In an interview with Bloomberg Technology, he said, “It’s hard to know where it goes…”
Whoops.
Maybe he wasn’t wrong, just early…
What we do know is the top crypto holders don’t want to risk losing money in crypto and will always tap out for cash when they can. So for all the industry's pie-in-the-sky good intentions of democratizing finance for all, when the real money gets involved, cash is still king.
And the FTX disaster hasn’t helped boost public confidence, either.
But as we’ll see below, Bitcoin might be the only choice right now.
As the winners emerge from this latest crypto bull run, it's clear that the superpowers of the world, including the U.S., China, and Russia, aren't comfortable with the new wealth being created.
That's because in democracies and communist nations alike, crypto can create a power vacuum and destabilize even the most powerful hierarchies.
The Crypto Hierarchy
According to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, just 0.01% of Bitcoin holders control 27% of the digital asset. Compare that with data from the Federal Reserve showing that the top 1% of U.S. households hold nearly a third of all wealth.
It should come as no surprise that even in the decentralized financial world, wealth inequality is just as rampant as it is in traditional finance.
Crypto now represents economic freedom, but only for the top 1% of crypto holders, including celebrity CEOs like Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey and institutional investors like MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor.
Crypto advocates cheered when Tesla announced it would accept Bitcoin as payment for its vehicles. But just as we’ve seen across the board, Musk backpedaled on this promise, citing environmental worries in a Twitter post, saying, "We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuel for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."
China got on board the environmental angle as well, saying that Bitcoin mining is extremely harmful and jeopardizes its goal of carbon neutrality.
China effectively banned Bitcoin mining in its Sichuan province, which controlled two-thirds of all Bitcoin mining in the world. Then the country ordered banks to stop supporting crypto transactions. The People’s Bank of China even went as far as outlawing all crypto transactions.
I suspect the environment is just a scapegoat, as world nations are feeling increasingly threatened by decentralized finance and the 0.01% who control it.
The fact that entire countries are terrified of crypto adoption means the decentralized financial economy is already here and will only grow stronger in 2024.
And now the two major wars overseas are causing even more inflation back here.
Trouble Back Home
In the U.S., many of us simply can’t become the very best version of ourselves and be productive in the economy.
Sure, we can buy cheap Chinese goods on Amazon, which creates deflationary pressure.
But everything important to living is more expensive, a sign of rising inflation.
Check out this chart from HowMuch.net, a financial literacy website… and remember that what’s true in developed countries is even more true in developing nations, especially in large cities.
Stuff has gotten cheaper, but life has become more expensive.
The real drivers of the economy are so expensive that the costs are hurting families, housing, and even birth rates.
Our government needs to upgrade our human capital so that we are more competitive, have access to capital markets, and are in control of our finances.
But that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.
So, in the meantime…
“Buy Bitcoin, Reject inflation”
That’s the sentiment from Ricardo Salinas, a Mexican billionaire who interviewed with Bitcoin Magazine this week.
He says as inflation continues, you should “store your wealth in Bitcoin.”
According to the magazine, “Salinas emphasized the importance of educating people about the impact of government monetary policies, which he referred to as fraud. To promote Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom, Salinas stressed the necessity for individuals to recognize the manipulative nature of the financial system.”
The case for Bitcoin remains even stronger now when compared with gold.
Forbes wrote this week, “In the old thinking, gold should have rocketed in the pandemic and continued that ascent with the resulting inflation. It has not.”
So the question remains…
Are you buying gold or Bitcoin?
Choose wisely.
Stay frosty, Alexander Boulden After Alexander’s passion for economics and investing drew him to one of the largest financial publishers in the world, where he rubbed elbows with former Chicago Board Options Exchange floor traders, Wall Street hedge fund managers, and International Monetary Fund analysts, he decided to take up the pen and guide others through this new age of investing. Alexander is the investment director of Insider Stakeout — a weekly investment advisory service dedicated to tracking the smartest money on the planet so that his readers can achieve life-altering, market-beating returns. He also serves at the managing editor for R.I.C.H. Report, a comprehensive service that uses the highest-quality investment research and strategies that guides its members in growing their wealth on top of preserving it.
Check out his editor’s page here. Want to hear more from Alexander? Sign up to receive emails directly from him ranging from market commentaries to opportunities that he has his eye on.
Editor, Wealth Daily