The battle of Bitcoin (BTC) versus fiat money is witnessing not a flippening but a “flattening” as coronavirus upends economic policy.
A chart of the United States’ M2 money supply compared to the largest cryptocurrency shows that while one is leveling out its supply, the other is going “parabolic.”
BTC hardens, USD goes “parabolic”
Uploaded to Twitter by Robert Breedlove, CEO of digital asset investment firm Parallax Digital, the chart highlights the strikingly different paths taken by fiat and Bitcoin since coronavirus hit with full force in March.
Bitcoin’s fixed supply schedule — the number of new coins issued halves every 2016 blocks — has coincided with mass money printing in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The latest supply decrease came in the form of May’s block subsidy halving. At the same time, central banks continue to announce stimulus programs that inflate the supply of cash.
The result is Bitcoin displaying the kind of “flattening curve” that governments wished to see in coronavirus cases — achieving that allegedly demanded measures which caused the money printing in the first place.
“Bitcoin supply curve starting to flatten against a parabolic USD M2 money supply—what happens next?” Breedlove commented.
USD M2 money supply versus Bitcoin. Source: Robert Breedlove/Twitter
M2 refers to the M1 money supply plus what the Federal Reserve summarizes as a “broader set of financial assets held principally by households.” At press time, the M2 total was $18.115 trillion, up $2.4 trillion since March.
No crisis for hard money
As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin’s recovery since its price crash several months ago has demonstrated the resilience of its self-governing protocol.
Q2 returns have topped 50%, making BTC the best-performing macro asset. Analysis has also revealed similarities between current market conditions and Bitcoin’s historical behavior at the end of bear markets.
One prediction even places BTC/USD at $75,000 in weeks, due to the recovery almost exactly copying that from 2013.
Not everyone is bullish, however, with Cointelegraph analyst filbfilb suggesting that short-term indicators are demanding caution and that $10,000 remains an unlikely support level.