- Lloyd Blankfein questioned why crypto was not experiencing higher inflows.
- The price of international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 18 percent.
On March 7, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) remained close to its one-week lows as investors sought to protect their assets. BTC is now trading at roughly $38,700 after swinging back and forth overnight. With speculations that Western sanctions against Russia may include an oil embargo, the pair was under pressure going into the weekly close, culminating in its lowest levels this month. As a result, gold surged to a new high of $2,000 per ounce, the first time it has done so since August 2020, on Monday.
The poor performance of Bitcoin has even drawn the attention of the mainstream financial industry. Goldman Sachs ex-CEO Lloyd Blankfein questioned why crypto was not experiencing higher inflows given the government’s control over the money supply in the United States.
In a tweet, Llyod stated:
“Keeping an open mind about crypto, but given the inflating US dollar and the stark reminder that governments can and will under certain circumstances freeze accounts and block payments, wouldn’t you think crypto would be having a moment now? Not seeing it in the price, so far.”
Bitcoin Expected to Bounce Back
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor responded by blaming the current situation on competing investment profiles. Still, he also predicted that the status quo would be shattered and that Bitcoin would fulfill its role as a long-term investment in the future.
Risk-off markets had their worst day since 2008, with the price of international oil benchmark Brent crude rising 18 percent to about $139 per barrel early Monday, its highest level since before the financial crisis. Although Bitcoin’s lack of a buffer against the continued market volatility has raised questions about its “safe haven” character, the correlation coefficient between the Nasdaq Composite and Bitcoin reached 0.87 on Monday.
