Is Bitcoin really a safe haven asset?

[casey15]

Hello Bitcointalkers
 At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?
I have been thinking about the current political happenings in the world today and how Bitcoin could possibly affect nations involved... and I do have some pressing questions for discussion.

1. In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

2. Is its safe haven status driven by an increase in the retail demand by the affected civilizations in these crises, or is it still driven by institutional funds in terms of price movement?

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

 Looking forward to your replies

[nemesis_incarnate]

BTC is an alternative to the traditional systems, so I wouldn't go for gold as an ultimate comparison.

It has some qualities to call it so, but in the end - you don't use gold to buy services and such, which you can do with BTC even now.

[Bagimaza]

For the time being I’ve got to know about bitcoin, for it to achieve the status of safe haven, many things have to be taken into consideration.

Firstly, lower volatility of the asset is important to be in order. The high volatile nature of it makes it not a suitable choice for many people. Too many speculative theories about bitcoins makes up with it to be highly volatile and swings very much.

Secondly, bitcoin needs legal clarity all over the world. For it to be a safe haven, it needs to be accepted all round the world as legal tender. Some countries accepting it and some rejecting it will make it hard to reach the status of being called a safe haven.

Thirdly, until big companies that are buying bitcoin in large quantities begin to use it as a reserve and not just for investment sake can make Bitcoin achieve that status. This also includes central banks not trading it only, but also using it as a reserve.

Public trust needs to be built amongst Bitcoin holders. During the times of wars or inflation, if Bitcoin can uphold its value and not affected by it, government and citizens will trust Bitcoin more and be seen as a more better alternative to fiat when it crumbles.

Easy storage build mainstream confidence in BTC and until the storage looks not intimidated to an average man, the trust confident in Bitcoin will not be built. Gold bar already achieved that, this is why the trust to be used as a reserve asset to institution and governments is second to none.

[Alpha Marine]

1. In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

From July 2022, the hryvnia has been on a downward trend due to the war, and this made a few people turn to bitcoin as a store of value for their money and also a means of receiving aid from family, friends and donors outside the country. The price and features of Bitcoin have been the same all over the world; it doesn't change from one region to another. So if Bitcoin has been a hedge against inflation in one currency, it has been a hedge against inflation for all currencies facing inflation. So yeah, I can say it has been reliable and consistent.

I saw this on World Economic Forum . This was about two years ago, I guess.

Today, as the conflict enters its second year, over $212 million worth of crypto has been donated to pro-Ukrainian war efforts, according to Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm. This includes roughly $80 million worth of crypto going directly to the Ukrainian government.

Chainalysis, another major blockchain analysis firm, reported that in the first month of the war, the Ukrainian government received more than $56 million in crypto donations. Most of the donations, Chainalysis found, have been made in bitcoin and Ethereum.

I had to look for a website article I read earlier from The New Arab where I saw this.

“I received money via cryptocurrency platforms and then exchanged the money here. We distributed food baskets to hundreds of families in need in the northern Gaza Strip. Without the cryptocurrency platforms, we wouldn’t be able to do this campaign and receive funds,” the aid worker told The New Arab.

Obviously, bitcoin was not the only currency they received, but it was part of it, and technically, all these other cryptocurrencies wouldn't be available without the creation of bitcoin.
Bitcoin wasn't created to stop wars or eradicate poverty; it was created to be an alternative currency, and it has been that in this context.

2. Is its safe haven status driven by an increase in the retail demand by the affected civilizations in these crises, or is it still driven by institutional funds in terms of price movement?

It is a currency driven by the demand of the players in the market. There are different players in the market. Yes, we can't argue that institutional funds don't create a huge demand in the market, but their demand alone won't drive it to where it is now. I think it was around 2020 that institutions started taking Bitcoin seriously and buying in bulk; before then, Bitcoin had already hit $13k in 2019 without institutional funds.

Bitcoin is a currency and an asset, and a currency and asset are not immune to things that happen in the political, financial and economic world because the people who hold or trade these currencies are in this world; they don't live in an alternate universe where the things of the world don't affect them. So the things that happen affect their decision too. This may lead them to buy, sell or hold their bitcoin. It may be a father who needs money to pay for his kids' medical bills, or a mother who wants to pay the mortgage. It may also just be a person who wants to DCA or a company that wants to diversify into bitcoin, or it can also be a person who panicked and sold because the US bombed Iran,  and thousands of other reasons. All these things may be insignificant on their own, but when you put them together, they are what determine the price movement of Bitcoin.

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

Trust.
Everything to make it a safe haven is already in the system. It has a limited supply, it's completely decentralised, there's a halving every four years to reduce the supply, divisible into 100 million satoshis (an underrated feature, btw), and many more technical aspects I do not completely understand yet. So all that is needed now is to trust.
I don't know if it was created to be a safe haven, but if the players in the market (every single person who owns and trades bitcoin) trust it, it can be a safe haven.
Trust in the sense that we always know and believe it will not crash, and even if it does, we know it will rise again. It is this trust that allows a person to buy Bitcoin today, if it dips below $50k. It is trust that allows a holder not to sell when they see Bitcoin nosediving to 50k. This is what other cryptocurrencies do not have. Trust creates demand, and demand increases the price.  

[Ambatman]

Safe Haven is quite relative. Gold tend to perform well during crisis whether financial, economical or geopolitical.

In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

The crisis and unrest didn't prevent the ability to transfer one's Bitcoin from one country to another.
So yeah, it's safer than owning Fiat or any physical asset during such unrest.

And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

Awareness. People need to be aware that crisis wouldn't directly affect their Bitcoin or stop them from making transactions.

So it's Bitcoin a safe haven? Yes when compared to Fiat but maybe lacking for now when compared to Gold.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Hello Bitcointalkers
 At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?
I have been thinking about the current political happenings in the world today and how Bitcoin could possibly affect nations involved... and I do have some pressing questions for discussion.

Bitcoin is Bitcoin and it should be referred as Bitcoin only.

Digital gold was used to mention about Bitcoin and compare it with gold in early years since Bitcoin Genesis block. People did this as they believed it will help bringing Bitcoin to more people. In 2025, Bitcoin adoption is already big enough and in my opinion, using "Digital gold" to call Bitcoin now and even in the future is no longer necessary.

Bitcoin has been already strong enough in 2025 to be called only as itself, Bitcoin.

[rodskee]

Hello Bitcointalkers
 At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?

a lot of bitcoin followers do not like calling bitcoin as a digital gold since bitcoin has nothing to do with gold anyway. it’s not a digital version of gold it was just called that way before to show similarities but some say it must not be treated as such

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

 Looking forward to your replies

reduced volatility

not expecting bitcoin to completely be stable like fiat but people will consider bitcoin a safer haven if the price wasn’t declining so much every now and then

[Spaceman1000$]

Hello Bitcointalkers
 At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?
I have been thinking about the current political happenings in the world today and how Bitcoin could possibly affect nations involved... and I do have some pressing questions for discussion.

1. In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

2. Is its safe haven status driven by an increase in the retail demand by the affected civilizations in these crises, or is it still driven by institutional funds in terms of price movement?

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

 Looking forward to your replies

1. To a large extent bitcoin is a safe heaven for persons that find themselves in a warring situation as your bitcoin assets cannot be destroyed by the event of war because it's a digital asset.

2. Secondly bitcoin is a Decentralized asset, so the demand for it it's not driven by any crisis situation or institutional funds as you sound, or even political affiliation, it is driven basically by people that want to invest and have witnessed the testament to the fact that this asset has the potential to grow over time, and it is natural that demands create increasing price.

3. Bitcoin has already achieved more than 70% of what it was created for, the acceptance is there already, and one of the reasons why we call it a digital gold is metaphorical because of the value to which it has.

[DanWalker]

An asset is considered a safe haven if it meets factors such as high liquidity, stable value or increases over time. Especially not dumped due to economic instability or speculative Fud, and is widely recognized and accepted globally.

Meanwhile, bitcoin is highly volatile, susceptible to devaluation by geopolitical conflicts, economic instability and has yet to be recognized and adopted globally. Many countries are still restricting and being quite cautious with it, even completely banning it like China. So, it can be said that bitcoin is not yet a safe haven but that will likely change over time as bitcoin matures.

[BIT-BENDER]

At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?
I have been thinking about the current political happenings in the world today and how Bitcoin could possibly affect nations involved... and I do have some pressing questions for discussion.

Bitcoin is not a digital gold, Bitcoin is a digital currency, that comparison is a bit belittling especially because I believe that Bitcoin has far more futuristic value than gold. Gold is gold, Bitcoin is Bitcoin.

1. In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

Not completely because some exchanges has actually banned any activities that involve some of those countries, and just because they can transact in Bitcoin doesn't mean Bitcoin is their safe heaven, there are still other restrictions that affects them.

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

you keep using the word safe heaven but what do you really understand by that and what makes Gold a safe heaven? Bitcoin is not trying to be like gold to me they ar different in so many ways, bitcoin is bringing a positive change into the financial sector and giving people more freedom and flexibility.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Learn to know about bitcoin and be rest assured that everything about bitcoin talks to our own advantage in it, if we think we are no more inline with how things have been done in the past to this day, they we must be able to see various opportunities from what bitcoin has come to serve by learning to know all of these potentials, bitcoin has rendered lots of benefits for those who have adopted and still counting, which is part of why we could see its increasing widespread for strategic reserve, after so many opportunities had been discovered from its adoption.

[Sim_card]

Currently, only gold has been tested to be a safe haven asset. Bitcoin should be taken for what it was created for as a currency and not a safe haven asset because when it moves from one hand to the other increases adoption. Apart from gold, bitcoin is next because it's a store of value overtime and gives you the freedom to be your own bank.

[Furious 7]

Bitcoin is not safe, and in my opinion, only people who do not understand bitcoin say that it is safe because, after all, bitcoin is risky given its volatility, so it is not appropriate to say that bitcoin is a safe place.

However, even so, Bitcoin is still one of the alternatives for hedging, and that is a fact that we cannot simply deny, so it is not appropriate to say that Bitcoin is safe because there is no such thing as safety in Bitcoin when it has been clear from the start that this is a high-risk investment in the sense that we must be prepared to bear all forms of consequences if we want to be in Bitcoin.

Regardless of what happens in wars (geopolitical issues) or economic problems that cause downturns and inflation to be felt, it is clear that Bitcoin can be a good option for hedging. Even now, the evidence that adoption is increasing is an undeniable situation that Bitcoin can be an option for this.

[Obim34]

Bitcoin is not safe, and in my opinion, only people who do not understand bitcoin say that it is safe because, after all, bitcoin is risky given its volatility, so it is not appropriate to say that bitcoin is a safe place.

Bitcoin volatility doesn't make it risky. Risky as most people will conclude from your statement. Bitcoin has a lesser volatility against most altcoins, these are the risky volatile assets because they may not gather enough potentials to reform to previous price or create another new price mark. Bitcoin experience volatility, investors goes ahead taking advantage of the low price to buy aggressively, in a span of months or years the price of Bitcoin begins to retrace back to its earliest price generating additional profits on top.

However, even so, Bitcoin is still one of the alternatives for hedging, and that is a fact that we cannot simply deny, so it is not appropriate to say that Bitcoin is safe because there is no such thing as safety in Bitcoin when it has been clear from the start that this is a high-risk investment in the sense that we must be prepared to bear all forms of consequences if we want to be in Bitcoin.

If you talk from trading perspective, Bitcoin can be risky but it is all the same with every other pairs you trade with. Based on investment, if you don't sell your Bitcoin within the period of bear, your assets are secured, you only lose dollar equivalent of your asset and not the actual amount of your portfolio, in this case i don't see how much of a high investment risk it is, afterwards when the market becomes bullish you are likely to make nice returns from your holdings.

[Findingnemo]

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

Bitcoin is already regulated in most countries as asset and there are capital gains on the profits, but will that make a safe heaven? Nope.

Until now Bitcoin has performed better compared to traditional assets like in the recent war tensions but we can't expect the same if things are happening with US or other countries. Trust factor increased among the people compared to like where we ere before 10 years but I feel still a lot more space to achieve and for the real adoption.

[Richbased]

When we are talking about bitcoin it is more of a global asset than an individual or country asset so i don't think there will be any form of war in any part the world, whether political or economical that will affect bitcoin intensely. The only thing that is capable of causing a havoc is a world war. Of course, even in those countries that are facing war some of them still see bitcoin as a safe haven because during war, a country's national currency may not be too useful but since bitcoin is a digital money, it can be used for local and international transactions and besides, a country that is facing war can lose the value of their currency which means that only those who own bitcoins have succeeded in protecting their money from inflation that comes after war.

However, bitcoin is still in the developing stages regardless of the awareness it has gotten so far. Gold has been there for ages so we can't really say which policies that will help bitcoin to achieve a safe haven as gold since the price is mostly determined by demand and supply but i will also say that if more countries embrace bitcoin as their strategic reserve asset and make policies that will secure those bitcoins in the long run then we can actually achieve that safe haven.

[Onyeeze]

We are misunderstooding Bitcoin, bitcoin is not an asset it is a currency that should be used intercontinentally but we misunderstood the purpose of a Bitcoin, there is no different between Bitcoin and our traditional currency but the thing is that bitcoin appreciate that is why many people misunderstood the use of it and why it was created, bitcoin was not created to be asset and it was not created to be compared with gold, the main reasons why it was created is to be use as a currency of it's own that will not be compromised by the government.

[Patikno]

Based on my reference, safe haven (in business) is defined as an investment that can keeps value, especially when other investments are falling or may fall in value.

My reference : dictionary.cambridge.org - safe haven

So, I think Bitcoin can be considered a safe haven asset, especially in the long term. We know that Bitcoin can maintain its value, even to this day, Bitcoin continues to rise, even setting new all-time highs, and Bitcoin has proven itself to be a reliable asset. That is why investors from companies, countries or institutions are starting to look at Bitcoin, and adopt it. We can even see many people who were once skeptical, now believing in Bitcoin.

By the way, one of the successful entrepreneurs and investors in my country has now invested in Bitcoin, even though he used to doubt it, but recently he has acknowledged Bitcoin, and has invested some of his money in Bitcoin. Here, he said regarding that : Youtube - Sandiaga Uno (Need to use "Subtitle" feature on the video settings, then choose "auto-translate", and pick the english translation)

[criptoevangelista]

Hello Bitcointalkers
 At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?
I have been thinking about the current political happenings in the world today and how Bitcoin could possibly affect nations involved... and I do have some pressing questions for discussion.

1. In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

2. Is its safe haven status driven by an increase in the retail demand by the affected civilizations in these crises, or is it still driven by institutional funds in terms of price movement?

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

 Looking forward to your replies

Money that you can send through communication channels, any amount, at any time, and to anywhere in the world, do you really think that’s a safe and reliable asset? There’s nothing like it in the world. Your wealth can be protected from disasters, and you can start over anywhere in the world… That’s what Bitcoin is, and the world will come to accept Bitcoin as it is. Freedom.

[batang_bitcoin]

Hello Bitcointalkers
 At this point, can we can refer to Bitcoin as digital gold?

We already did years ago.

1. In the face of political unrest and major conflict as we have seen this year with countries like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, e.t.c, Has bitcoin proven to be a reliable and consistent safe haven for such countries?

Yes, you don't have to carry all the weight of your wealth with you if you're going to runaway from your home or move to another country. As lon as you get the seeds of it, your bitcoins are safe.

2. Is its safe haven status driven by an increase in the retail demand by the affected civilizations in these crises, or is it still driven by institutional funds in terms of price movement?

It's driven by the community which has grown into global setting and now penetrated by the institutions and governments.

3. And for Bitcoin to really acquire the title of a safe haven asset just like Gold, what development, regulation, or acceptance does it need to achieve?

There is no need for any of that, the people who owns it will speak for itself.