The price of bitcoin has risen significantly in recent days, despite rising bond yields, in contrast to the last week of February, when it fell sharply.
On March 30th, the cryptocurrency was trading above $59.000, recording daily gains of 3%. Its price has risen about $8.000 since last Thursday, according to CoinDesk.
It is noted that the yield on the US 10-year bond climbed six basis points to 1.77%, which is the highest level since January 23, 2020.
The resilience of bitcoin means that the market climate is optimistic. “Bitcoin remains very strong despite the appreciation of the dollar and rising bond yields,” Stack Funds co-founder Matthew Dibb told CoinDesk. “Despite the historical correlations, bitcoin is going against the trend, while the price of gold has fallen below $1.700.”
Increasing returns typically deprive attractive assets that are considered to provide protection against inflation, such as bitcoin and gold. The cryptocurrency was sensitive to macroeconomic factors and, more recently, bond yields, with capital inflows from institutional investors following the coronavirus crash in March last year. Its price fell 20% in the last week of February after increasing the yield on 10-year US bonds to 1.5%.
This time, however, increased odds are making it harder to stop being optimistic about bitcoin. Its ever-increasing acceptance by institutional investors seems to overshadow the increase in returns.
Stack Funds is “extremely optimistic” about bitcoin and expects it to move to new highs, above 62.000 euros in the coming weeks, Dibbs said.
Bitcoin could face some sales pressure if bond yields rise faster, destabilising stock markets. However, Goldman Sachs believes that the stock markets will be able to withstand yields of 2% without much difficulty.
In the past, bitcoin has performed well in an environment of increasing returns. “87% of bitcoin performance was achieved while the yield on the US 10-year bond was growing,” wrote Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree.
