Those who saw bitcoin as a safe haven against inflation are now discovering that this is not the case. The wave of rising prices around the world and the prospect of a rate hike, on the eve of a meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed, American central bank), divert investors from the riskiest assets, and in first place of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin thus collapsed to nearly 33,000 dollars (29,153 euros) on Monday, January 24, a drop of more than 50% compared to its historic peak reached in November 2021, at 68,992 dollars.
Ultra-speculative value, the first of the cryptocurrencies had already gone through an air pocket, in July 2021. However, it largely benefited, throughout the health crisis, from the flow of liquidities which watered the markets, due to the monetary policy. very dovish from the Fed. Prior to December 2020, bitcoin had never crossed the $20,000 threshold.
“The main reason for bitcoin’s tumble is its correlation to US stock indices and tech stocks., explains Vincent Boy, market analyst at IG France. Far from being a safe haven, this asset falls as soon as the markets fall. »
Growing concern from financial authorities
The stock markets fell again on Monday after their losses the previous week, against a backdrop of inflationary fears and Russian-American tensions in Ukraine. The fall affected all the major European markets, from Paris (− 3.97%) to Frankfurt (− 3.80%), via Milan (− 4.02%) and London (− 2.63%), while in New York, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index fell more than 1% during the day.
“Many US tech stocks have actually been trending down since November 2021, points out Vincent Boy, but the movement was not visible on the indices, because the valuation of the tech giants remained very high. » The announcement by the Netflix streaming platform of a sharp slowdown in the growth of its number of subscribers, on Friday January 21, caused its stock price to fall by more than 20%, and led, in its wake, to , other US technology stocks and bitcoin. In this context of uncertainty, investors prefer to opt for government bonds.
Cryptocurrency is also suffering from the growing concern that financial authorities have about it. The Russian central bank published, Thursday, January 20, a shocking report proposing the prohibition of the “mining”, contributing to the creation of crypto-assets, as well as cryptocurrency investments and payments in the country. The Spanish market regulator has strongly regulated advertising for trading platforms, and equivalent measures are being studied in the United Kingdom or Italy. The president of a large French bank is also surprised that the tricolor supervisor, “fascinated by technology and terrified of missing a revolution”, don’t sound the alarm. “Bitcoin is a perfect bubble, he said. It is an accumulation of money without creation of value, which only flourished because money was cheap. »