- Both the Dow Jones and Bitcoin pushed are pushing to all-time highs.
- How can these two opposing asset classes be rising in tandem?
- It all comes down to one of Joe Biden’s newest cabinet picks.
One is the most mainstream investment vehicle there is, the other a futuristic cryptocurrency used as a means to escape from the constraints of central banks and “Big Finance”. Here’s how one woman, Janet Yellen, has the Dow Jones and Bitcoin soaring in perfect unison- for totally different reasons.
Dow 30,000 As Bitcoin Nears $20,000
Tuesday was a remarkable day in financial markets. The Dow Jones, one of the major U.S. stock market indices breached 30,000 for the first time. A new all-time high might be surprising to some given the carnage that the pandemic has done to the domestic economy, but Wall Street has pressed higher regardless.
Enjoying an even more dramatic spike is major cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, which is currently trading above 19,000. This is an extraordinary performance from an asset that had critics writing it off again when the stock market crashed earlier this year.
Scott Freeman, Co-Founder & Partner at JST Capital provided CCN.com with the following insight into the sentiment sweeping cryptocurrency markets,
“Everyone is moving into Bitcoin, especially as the price inches closer and closer to $20K, and this bullish mentality is spreading outwards to other tokens in the ecosystem… I expect that this movement into altcoins will only continue as the marketplace matures and continues to attract all types of investors.”
Given crypto enthusiasts’ distaste for the “banksters”, it is curious to see both sides of the coin performing so well. If Bitcoin is in many ways a hedge against the implosion of the conventional financial system, how can it be zeroing in on what would be it’s highest ever monthly close by some $6,000?
The answer can be narrowed down to the woman that Joe Biden has selected to be his treasury secretary.
Janet Yellen Is Wall Street’s Savior, Crypto’s Arch-Villain
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is a dove among doves and now she’s official it isn’t surprising to see Dow bulls salivating at the prospect of having a Fed insider at the Treasury. Full synergy between the fiscal and the monetary is now on the table, with Powell and Yellen acting as the dream team for stock markets.
Where does bitcoin fit into all this? Well, that scenario is exactly what cryptocurrency advocates have been predicting for some time. Central bank’s pumping empty asset bubbles resulting in massive inflation is the doomsday scenario that resulted in Satoshi Nakamoto inventing BTC in the first place.
For crypto-bulls, Yellen’s appointment amounts to no less than the first horseman (or woman) of the financial apocalypse. If you are a stock market bull, she might be closer to a messiah.
As the two sides revel in speculation, perhaps the real winners are those like Paul Tudor Jones, hedging their Dollar denominated exposure with a BTC investment. BTC/USD has shown little signs of acting as a haven, as it has risen over the past few days as the price of gold has dropped.
What is certain is that an uber-dove like Janet Yellen inspires euphoria and fear in equal measure across both sides. Simultaneous deflation and hyper-inflation anyone?
