Tom Lee Says Investors Hedging Using Bitcoin as Crypto Rally Continues

Fundstrat head Tom Lee said that cryptocurrency is providing a hedge against global risks which have alleviated due to the US-China trade war.

Crypto as a hedge

Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Lee said that cryptocurrencies provide a hedge against global risks to investments. This is especially true in the coin’s price movements as the US-China trade conflict refuses to subside. Yesterday, the price of Yuan fell against the US Dollar to decade lows, which made US President Donald Trump call out Chinese authorities for manipulating the price of their currency. This has even led to tensions about China dumping US Treasuries worth trillions of dollars or not participating in this week’s US debt auctions.

Lee appeared on Fast Money saying that Bitcoin has some interesting things in 2019. It was correlated with the dollar. He went on to add,

“Weak dollar has been good for bitcoins. And it’s been really correlated to risk markets. This year, it’s steered away from the dollar because the dollar’s been strong, bitcoin’s been up, which is a real breakage. It’s gone negative on correlation to the equity markets.”

Bitcoin’s relationship with gold

Lee noted that Bitcoin had been positively correlated with gold, which helps in proving the case for creating a hedge against global risks. Gold surged by over 2% yesterday, reaching its highest levels in six years. The rally, in turn, was fueled by the US-China trade conflict. Investors are now worried about the safety of their assets and moving towards bonds, gold, and even cryptocurrency. Equity markets are becoming more volatile while Bitcoin jumped by 8% at the start of the week.

However, the Fundstrat founder noted that there is another reason behind the bullishness in the crypto market. He said that the months-long crypto winter, which consumed the entirety of 2018 is the reason why Bitcoin has made bullish moves now. With better institutional investments bringing diversification in the market, he thinks that Bitcoin and other currencies will now reach new highs.

In the meanwhile, Yuan is still maintaining its streak to not trade for less than 7 per dollar since 2008. The heavily controlled currency moved further low as the US announced that it would impose 10% tariffs on Chinese goods worth $300 billion on September 1. This led to a sharp decline in prices of US equities. Several companies have large manufacturing facilities or suppliers based in China, and their businesses could be directly affected because of the tariffs.