The crypto gold standard statement is fading fast

The volatility of US-focused financial markets has made at least one point clear: bitcoin is not a “digital gold” or a “store of value,” just two major assertions being made. out about cryptocurrency when its price is rising.

At $37,000, late Tuesday afternoon, bitcoin is down 22% since early January and 45% since hitting an all-time high in early November. the explanation for this failure is complicated, but the simpler the better: bitcoin has always been primarily a purely speculative instrument; when high-risk assets fall out of vogue, they get dumped in the trash. Rather, bitcoin is acting like a bullish proxy for the tech Nasdaq index in the US, down 14% since early 2022. So the parallel claim of “irrelevant gains” also not stacked on top of each other.

Meanwhile, real gold, a true store of value based on the evidence of several thousand years, has done pretty much what it was supposed to do in times of fear of inflation: it moved sideways and rose slowly for a few days. past month. None of this rules out the possibility that bitcoin will appreciate as risk appetite grows. However, if that happens, please don’t listen to a sizzling version of the thesis (promoted by a strategist at Goldman Sachs, oddly just a few weeks ago) that bitcoin is competing with gold in “value market” and could therefore hit $100,000 if it took a 50% stake. Come on, cryptocurrencies don’t play on the same playing field, asset wise as gold – and we doubt they ever will.

Technology-obsessed officials at the London Stock Exchange need to be on the lookout. Nvidia, the US semiconductor chip giant, is preparing to drop a $40 billion takeover lawsuit from Arm Holdings, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday; and the company’s current owner in the UK, Japan’s SoftBank, is said to be preparing an IPO, or IPO, as an alternative.

Before buying SoftBank in 2016, Arm was London’s most powerful statement of seriousness in technology. The resale will give way to a sublime ‘go home’ story for a company born in a barn outside Cambridge whose chip designs have become a world leader. It would be a shock if SoftBank pushes Arm to New York.

Warning, an IPO anywhere will create a messaging headache for Arm CEO Simon Segars. This is what he wrote last July in a blog post, angrily defending the interests of the Nvidia acquisition and attempting to allay regulatory and competition concerns that now seem would kill the deal: “We were looking at an IPO, but determined that the pressure to deliver near-revenue growth and quarterly profits would impede our ability to invest, grow, move quickly.” our innovation and fast Who wants to buy shares in a company whose boss says independence will suffocate?