Warren Buffett Expects Market Doom That Can Take Down Bitcoin With It

Published at: May 5, 2020

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway remain reluctant in spending its $137 billion cash pile. Their cautious stance towards the abrupt recovery of the U.S. stock market may spoil the recent Bitcoin (BTC) rally.

The top-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization has long broken out of its short-term correlation with the U.S. stock market. But, a potential equities correction in the near-term raises the probability of a pullback in all high-risk and speculative assets.

Bitcoin S&P 500 realized correlation. Source: Skew

Technically, Bitcoin has more reasons to fall than to rise from $9,000

The Bitcoin price saw a vertical rally to $9,500 in a short period of time. It took less than two months for BTC to rise by nearly three-fold from $3,600.

Much of the positive sentiment around the upsurge of Bitcoin in April was attributed to the dominance of organic spot volume. It suggested that from $3,600 to mid-$7,000, retail investors accumulated BTC.

In previous rallies, spoof orders coming from the futures market created speculative short-term bubbles that burst as soon as a large whale triggered a cascading sell-off.

While high spot volume from exchanges like Coinbase can be considered an optimistic piece of data, it cannot solely justify the sustainability of such a large rally within a two-month span. The same way Buffett is struggling to find value in the stock market to lead major acquisition deals.

Speaking at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, Buffett said that $137 billion is not a large cash pile if bad things start to pile up in the market. Berkshire has major stakes in leading conglomerates like Coca Cola and Kraft Heinz. If the market begins to go in the opposite direction than analysts anticipate, the cash pile can be used to assist Berkshire’s portfolio companies.

Bitcoin is at a point where it faces strong overhead resistance in the $9,500 to $9,900 range and the U.S. equities market is still rattled by the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

Given the cyclical nature of Bitcoin, technical analysts weigh towards a correction for Bitcoin after its highly anticipated block reward halving on May 12.

Not all bearish for BTC, especially in the long-term

As Welt market analyst Holger Zschaepitz said, two previous Bitcoin halvings led to 10,000% and 2,500% gains for BTC.

Bitcoin price trend after previous halvings. Source: Holger Zschapitz

Bitcoin is a deflationary currency because its supply of 21 million BTC is fixed and cannot be altered. As such, any event that significantly impacts the supply of BTC will have a profound effect on the price of the cryptocurrency.

The halving decreases the rate in which new BTC is introduced to the market as Bitcoin moves towards capping its 21 million supply. As it gets closer to the figure, theoretically, the Bitcoin price is expected to increase and break out of its previous cycles.

The sentiment around stocks and high-risk assets remains cautious due to the uncertainty expressed by major investors like Buffett. But, over the long-term, data suggests Bitcoin is likely to persevere.

Long-time investors like Max Keiser are not impressed by Buffett’s recent investment decisions and his view of Bitcoin, however, adding that BTC outperformed most assets, including gold, in the past two months.

Tags
Related Posts
Warren Buffett praises stocks dollar-cost averaging — But does it work for Bitcoin?
Warren Buffett has a message to young investors: dollar-cost average into major stock market indices. However, data shows that the same strategy has worked quite well for Bitcoin (BTC) too over the past decade. The term dollar-cost averaging or DCA refers to a strategy when an investor divides up the total amount to be invested into periodic purchases of the given asset. The theory behind this investment strategy is that when an asset goes up or down, investors can benefit from both reducing the negative impact of price volatility. Buffett has long expressed his optimism towards dollar-cost averaging into stock …
Bitcoin / Nov. 1, 2020
‘Warren Buffett’ Index Predicts Stocks Crash — How Will Bitcoin React?
The “Buffett Indicator” is hinting that the United States’ stock market is currently at dot-com bubble levels, Yahoo Finance reported on Aug. 20. The indicator divides the Wilshire 5000 Index by the GDP of the U.S. Meanwhile, on Aug. 14, Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway invested in Barrick Gold, the second-biggest precious metal miner in the world. Some analysts said it could benefit Bitcoin (BTC) in the long term as it coincides with this stock market bubble alarm. The historical average of the indicator is 1, and before the dot-com bubble, it hovered at 1.71. Currently, the Buffett Indicator is reportedly …
Bitcoin / Aug. 22, 2020
Warren Buffett Buying Gold May Push Bitcoin to $50K, Investors Say
Berkshire Hathaway, the $503 billion conglomerate led by Warren Buffett, sold Goldman Sachs for a Canadian gold company Barrick Gold. Max Keiser, the founder of Heisenberg Capital and an early Bitcoin investor, says it could help buoy BTC to $50,000. The quarterly shareholder filing of Berkshire Hathaway shows Buffett trimmed his position on most major banks, Fortune reported on Aug. 15. The firm sold a substantially large portion of its shares in JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and PNG. What Buffett’s decision to enter a gold position over banks shows about Bitcoin Buffett’s decision to completely close Berkshire’s position on Goldman …
Bitcoin / Aug. 15, 2020
Warren Buffett invests $1B in Bitcoin-friendly neobank, dumps Visa and Mastercard stocks
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway dumped a portion of its Visa and Mastercard holdings and increased exposure in Nubank, the largest fintech bank in Brazil that's also popular among the country's Bitcoin investors. In a securities filing late Monday, the industrials conglomerate disclosed that it had purchased $1 billion worth of Nubank Class A stock in Q4/2021. On the other hand, it sold $1.8 billion and $1.3 billion worth of Visa and Mastercard stock, respectively, signaling a shift away from credit companies to gain exposure in their fintech rivals. Buffett, the so-called "Oracle of Omaha," is popular for his cautious approach …
Etf / Feb. 15, 2022
Yale Research Proposes Factors for Crypto Price Prediction
Yale University financial experts have suggested a system of factors to predict price trends in major cryptocurrencies, according to an official statement by YaleNews Aug. 6. The new study was conducted by Yale economist Aleh Tsyvinski and Yukun Liu, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics, and is reportedly the “first-ever comprehensive economic analysis of cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology.” In the paper, the authors intend to provide a “risk-return tradeoff” of major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP), according to its historical performance data. The experts reportedly analyzed the behavior of Bitcoin between 2011 …
Bitcoin / Aug. 8, 2018