Bitcoin’s sinking feeling

Feeling the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Bitcoin’s latest sell-off raises doubts over the safety of the ‘new gold’.

Gold is the new gold

Markets continue to feel the fallout from the standoff in Russia, tumbling at a rate of knots while the shares of Russian firms listed on Western stock exchanges plummeted. Facing trouble in the markets, investors pulled their money and moved it to the safest investment around – in other words, not Bitcoin.

It seems just weeks since Bitcoin was being hailed as the new gold – a storer of wealth and a hedge against inflation. But cometh the crisis, cometh the new gold and as it turns out, sometimes the old investments are the best.

What goes up…

Bitcoin has had been hit hard by some post-annexation blues – trading at a two-week low and reversing the gains made throughout February. At the same time, gold has rallied, raising questions over where the safe bet is.

Cryptocurrencies are many things to many people, but a safe investment in times of financial turmoil? Investors seem unconvinced.

Black and gold

And it isn’t just gold eyeing new highs. Crude oil has surged to its highest level since 2014 and has fallen just short of $100 a barrel.

Time may have changed and the bastions of yesterday’s investing scene may not always be what they once were, but when the chips are down, the safe money knows where to go.