Mark Mobius Calls Bitcoin a ‘Psycho Asset’

Continuing in a line of Bitcoin and gold predictions, emerging markets fund manager Mark Mobius weighed in on the years-long debate.

Yesterday, the founder of asset management firm Mobius Capital Partners LLP sat down for an interview with Canadian business news outlet BNN Bloomberg, where he gave his view on the dynamics between Bitcoin and gold. Amongst other things, while many see Bitcoin as the antithesis of the physical bullion, Mobius shared that he sees Bitcoin (and crypto-assets in general, as a matter of fact) as being beneficial to gold.

In part, he said, “You have all these currencies, new currencies coming into play. […] I call them ‘psycho currencies,’ because it’s a matter of faith whether you believe in Bitcoin or any of the other cyber-currencies. I think with the rise of that, there’s going to be a demand for real, hard assets, and that includes gold.”

This isn’t to say that Mobius isn’t sold on Bitcoin. In a Bloomberg newswire podcast back in May, be predicted that Bitcoin would be “alive and well” in the future, adding that the asset fulfills a desire among people who would like to transfer money in a relaxed, confidential manner. It seems that he’s just a bit more sold on gold as an investment vehicle.

Mobius also spoke on the long-term prospects of gold, adding that the recent monetary changes will help the asset in reaching new highs as time goes on.

“Gold’s long-term prospect is up, up and up, and the reason why I say that is money supply is up, up and up. […] I think you have to be buying at any level, frankly,” he said.  Picking up on his point, he added that it would be wise for stock trading investors and others to hold about a tenth of their investment portfolios in physical gold.

In a way, Mobius isn’t especially wrong. Commodity analyses have shown that the gold market is currently seeing some significant spike in investor demand, especially as bond yields have dipped due to growing suspicions that the Central Bank is working on a new global monetary easing cycle in a bid to stimulate economic growth once again.

The American economy witnessed an inverted yield curve last week, with many believing that it was a surefire sign of a looming recession. Since then, policymakers have begun to scramble to find a way out of this.

The result is a frantic market, which has seemingly turned to gold as a safe haven. While the asset has also been hit with some technical selling pressure ever since it reached a six-year high recently, the “yellowback” has held its own, and it has maintained its value over the critical point of $1,500 an ounce.

On the flip side, Bitcoin hasn’t done quite poorly for itself as well. Up over 20 percent since the lows of 2018, prices remain volatile, with Bitcoin trading at $10,153 per token at press time; dropping over 5 percent in the past day.