Abra CEO Agrees With Bitcoin's Role as Digital Gold

After changing roles several times since its 2009 launch, the current line on Bitcoin (BTC) calls it a store of value comparable to gold — a status with which Abra CEO Bill Barhydt agrees. 

"Today Bitcoin is best used as a store of value that will become more and more uncorrelated to traditional investing markets over time," Barhydt told Cointelegraph. 

Bitcoin's role transformation since inception

Following Bitcoin's on-chain beginnings in 2009, the asset traversed a staggering price growth journey, going from less than $1 all the way up to nearly $20,000 at its 2017 peak. Along with this price journey has come various views and use cases for the asset, according to Bitcoin stock-to-flow model creator PlanB during an interview with podcaster Peter McCormack. 

When Bitcoin reached $1, the narrative focused on the coin's use as a transactionary currency. As its price continued to see tremendous growth over the last decade, the asset found its way into the spotlight as a possible option for wealth storage. The asset has also seen its fair share of comparison to gold, often labeled as "digital gold."

"The moniker of Bitcoin as 'digital gold' is the best analogy for this that I’ve seen so far," Barhydt said following up on his Bitcoin store of value comment. 

Bitcoin's correlation with mainstream markets

Bitcoin, in theory, does not hold any direct ties to mainstream financial markets as it lies away from governmental control in a borderless fashion. The asset, however, has shown seemingly correlated action with traditional markets at points, while traveling its own price path at other times. 

"Bitcoin represents a fantastic insurance policy against traditional markets while governments run amok irresponsibly running their economies into the ground," Barhydt said. 

He added:

"It’s also the best ever showcase for global decentralization ever created. For the first time, we have a decentralized minting, storage and transaction processing system with no central off switch."

Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano has also expressed his view of Bitcoin as a non-correlated asset on a number of occasions.