A long-time gold bull and prominent investor Jeffrey Gundlach has had his head turned by cryptoassets, after noting that bitcoin — and not gold — might be the next big market stimulus.
Gundlach, who serves as chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, tweeted that he had changed his mind on bearish long-term positions for gold and the US dollar, having been neutral on both for the last six months.
He noted that bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, may be the next “stimulus asset” over gold in future.
Bitcoin surpassed several price milestones earlier this week, reaching a value of more than $51,000 on 18 February as institutional investors and billionaires such as Elon Musk gave weight to the cryptocurrency.
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Gundlach’s comments are the latest in a slew of analysts and investors predicting that bitcoin may soon replace gold as a digital safe haven asset.
JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou is one such bull, having made the case for bitcoin as digital gold on several occasions with a long-term price target on the coin at $146,000. However, the bank has said it does not expect bitcoin to reach that target soon, with price volatility informing an overall peak prediction of $35,000 this year.
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In a 17 February note, Panigirtzoglou said bitcoin’s $900bn+ market capitalisation had now more than doubled relative to gold in risk capital terms. “Unless bitcoin volatility subsides quickly from here, its current price of $48,000 looks unsustainable,” he added.
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