Bitcoin has been propelled to the forefront of global consciousness this week as financial sanctions on Russia rock markets.
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The bitcoin price, after soaring amid interest in bitcoin as means for Russia and sanctioned billionaires to evade sanctions, has fallen back following comments made by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and the rising prospect of new crypto regulations.
Now, legendary investor Bill Miller, who last month revealed his surprise bitcoin position, has warned some countries might want to consider bitcoin as a tool “other countries cannot harm us with.”
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The bitcoin price has bounced over the last week but remains highly volatile as global stock markets … [+]
“[Russia has] almost 50% of their reserves in currencies that are controlled by people who want to do them harm … they have 22% in gold that is the only part of their reserve that other countries can’t control,” Miller said, speaking on CNBC, adding “from Russia’s point of view, that’s not a great position to be in.”
This week, the U.S. and Europe imposed sweeping restrictions on Russia’s finances, crashing the Russian ruble and company stock prices in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
“We will paralyze the assets of Russia’s central bank [and] make it impossible for the central bank to liquidate its assets,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said last week. “No bank in the world, other than a Russian bank will touch you once you’re on the sanctions list, so where else could you put your money,” Nigel Kusher, the chief executive of law firm W Legal, told the BBC this week, adding bitcoin is “the only option” for certain Russian oligarchs and billionaires targeted by international sanctions.
“If you are a country out there that has a non-reserve currency—there’re about a hundred of them—you might think about saying: ‘You know what, maybe we could have something else out there that other countries cannot harm us with, and is impervious to inflation or to being manufactured in greater quantities,” Miller said, pointing to bitcoin’s hard limit of 21 million coins and its deflationary, decentralized structure.
Last month, Miller said he sees bitcoin as an insurance against potential “financial catastrophe,” warning other countries could be hit by similar crisis situations to Lebanon and Afghanistan. “I think it’s very bullish for bitcoin particularly,” Miller said this week.
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The bitcoin price has fallen back after surging higher this week as investors parse the news coming … [+]
Last year, El Salvador became the world’s first country to begin buying bitcoin, hoping to break its reliance on the U.S. dollar and the traditional financial system—with some lawmakers in other countries considering making a similar move.
In January, Wall Street giant Fidelity predicted other countries and even a central bank could follow El Salvador into bitcoin this year—saying that those who buy bitcoin while the price is low “will be better off competitively than their peers.”
“There is very high stakes game theory at play here, whereby if bitcoin adoption increases, the countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better off competitively than their peers,” Fidelity analysts Chris Kuiper and Jack Neureuter wrote in a note, adding they “wouldn’t be surprised to see other sovereign nation-states acquire bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central bank make an acquisition.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2022/03/05/a-legendary-investor-just-issued-a-stark-russia-warning-along-with-a-bullish-bitcoin-price-prediction/