According to Jeff Curry, Global Head of Commodity Research at Goldman Sachs, digital assets like Bitcoin don't replace gold, but they can be an alternative to commodities like copper.
"Digital currencies are not a substitute for gold. In any case, they can replace copper. They are risk-oriented and represent assets with risk. Are you paying attention to the correlation between bitcoin and copper, or do you want to get a taste of risk? If there is a risk, then you are in the direction of bitcoin. We have a ten-year history of trading bitcoin - it is definitely a risky asset. Its demand is carried out through payment systems. This will be correlated with the business cycle." Jeff Curry said.
Cryptocurrencies are risky assets, so they are more closely tied to commodities like copper and oil rather than gold.
Based on his findings, the crypto market provides an opportunity to protect Bitcoin against good inflation and gold against bad inflation.
He added that Bitcoin replaces risk-based inflation hedging rather than risk-free inflation hedging. In other words, there is good inflation, and there is bad inflation. Good inflation is when it is pulled by demand. This is what hedges Bitcoin, copper, and oil. Gold hedges bad inflation where supply is declining, which causes people to focus on a shortage of goods and other types of incoming raw materials.
On a separate note, Goldman Sachs said that commuting remains one of the best defenses against inflation.
Commodities are the very spot assets that depend on demand, not on the level of supply today. Accordingly, they hedge against unforeseen short-term inflation, which occurs when demand exceeds supply in the later stages of the economic cycle.
But despite the fact that crypto-assets are a risky product, they continue to develop steadily.
In fact, SpaceX plans to launch the "DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon" in early 2022. This was announced back in May.
It is worth noting that SpaceX launched an Ethereum node to the International Space Station last Thursday, which is the first time such a node has been launched into space. The docking took place on Saturday.
But BitMEX has gone even further. Recently, the crypto exchange announced that it is going to place a physical wallet containing one bitcoin on the surface of the Moon. The wallet will look like a commemorative coin.
To implement this, BitMEX is helping to fund the efforts of Astrobotic, a space robotics company, to launch a commercial Peregrine lander to the moon. This landing is scheduled for the 4th quarter, just before the "DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon".