Chief investment officer, Peter Boockvar from Bleakley Advisory Group – a financial planning and wealth advisory firm – predicted the near 90% Bitcoin (BTC) crash in January last year. Now, he says Bitcoin can be used as a signaling mechanism for traditional markets.
Boockvar made his comments in a CNBC interview on June 4:
Per the interview, Boockvar mentioned the US-China trade war and proclaimed that Bitcoin’s sharp rise in price could be a tip-off that investors are worried about the implications this trade war might have on traditional markets.
He stated that the stock market has weakened over fears the trade war could escalate and weaken the dollar, and in light of this, he believes investors may have flocked to Bitcoin.
Explaining more, he said:
“Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen this sharp rise in bitcoin and to me, that was saying something in terms of what markets were thinking, about what the Fed was going to do, the turmoil created by the threatened tariffs.”
However, as Boockvar is a well-known gold bug, he does not condone investing in Bitcoin but rather looks at its price action as a useful measure of market sentiment.
“I watch bitcoin as a signal, as an indicator, not because I want to own it as I’d rather own gold as an alternative currency.”
He then added that he believes there is a correlation between gold and Bitcoin, seeing as gold rallied shortly after Bitcoin’s recent bull run began.
For this reason, he says, it’s worth watching Bitcoin as a leading indicator for gold:
“I don’t recommend bitcoin in either direction because I don’t really care for it in terms of an asset, but I do care for it as a signaling mechanism that I think was a tip-off to this bounce in gold.”
Do you think Bitcoin’s price rally was influenced by uncertainties in the stock markets? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
