The price of Bitcoin is as stable as it’s been for five years, according to one gauge. That’s largely because nobody is trading the token anymore. Investors fled crypto after a nightmarish 2022 – and bitcoin’s still way below its $69,000 record. Loading Something is loading.
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Bitcoin is finally behaving like gold – because interest in cryptocurrencies has dried up over the past year.
A gauge that measures the token’s 30-day volatility is trading close to a five-year low, according to a recent report by Bloomberg citing data from digital assets research firm K33.
That means bitcoin is steadier than the S&P 500 benchmark of US-listed stocks, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, and even gold.
However, trading volume for bitcoin has also faded to its lowest level since November 2020, per K33.
The data reflects the sad reality for digital-asset evangelists.
Institutional and retail investors alike turned away from the sector over what was a nightmarish 2022, when rapidly rising interest rates and the spectacular collapse of high-profile companies such as FTX cratered bitcoin’s price.
And while other riskier assets like stocks have rebounded this year, bitcoin still trades at under $30,000 – more than 50% below the peak of almost $69,000 in November 2021.
It briefly rallied after the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, said it wanted to launch a spot ETF tracking the token’s price, but has seen that run fizzle out in recent weeks.
Bitcoin’s newfound sturdiness is a cruel twist on bulls’ long-held belief that it could one day become a form of “digital gold” – crypto’s version of a “safe haven” that investors turn to in times of trouble.
To an extent, their vision for a low-volatility asset has now come to life – but only because nobody really cares about crypto anymore.