While the value of gold continues have remained in the same range for a while, the bitcoin has been blossoming as the hottest investment option on the market. This has led some to believe that the bitcoin could be hurting the overall demand for gold as an investment. This comes as the value of gold has been holding steady for a while.
But an executive at Goldman Sachs says that the bitcoin is not causing any harm. Jeffrey Curie, the leader of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said in a Financial Times interview that gold is still a popular investment and that the bitcoin is not going to make a major impact on its value as it continues to be traded by many on the market.
Different Investors
Curie’s main argument about the bitcoin is that the investor pool for the digital currency is different from what gold has been dealing with over time. He argues that newer investors are more interested in the bitcoin than other currencies or commodities.
Curie also states that more experienced investors are staying away from the bitcoin because of their general worries over how that currency works. He specifically sites that lack of regulation and centralization as a concern for many.
Speculation Points
Speculation is a point that Jeffrey Curie has also introduced into his argument. Curie states that by investing in the bitcoin, people are focusing less on how well it can be tied to other investments and more on the potential for the coin to grow. He feels that the bitcoin is not as certain of an investment as gold is, thus leading different groups of people to invest in these two.
What About Positives?
Curie does state that the bitcoin has a few positives that make it an interesting investment for people to utilize. Curie particularly argues that the bitcoin has a unique layout and that it does offer a simplified approach to taking care of transactions around the world. But he still feels that the volatility of the bitcoin makes it a point of concern.
Changes in Values
Curie’s words come as the value of gold has not been changing as much as that of the bitcoin. In the past month, the bitcoin has risen in value by thousands of dollars. It has been flirting with the $20,000 mark in recent time.
Meanwhile, gold has been hanging around the same value for a bit of time. Gold is at a value of around $1,200 per ounce. It has been at this range for much of the past year although it had been closer to $1,300 per ounce at one point. The value is still dramatically less than the $1,800 per ounce total it had reached back in 2011.
The differences in how gold and the bitcoin are traded are clearly noticeable. But as Goldman Sachs argues, it is expected that gold will continue to work separately from the bitcoin and that the rise of the bitcoin is not going to make much of a change on how the market works.
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