• Bitcoin continues to remain under pressure as massive money moves out of the risk-on assets owing to the Russia-Ukraine war crisis.
• Yellow metal physical Gold continues to dominate as a hedge as the price touches a 20-month high.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has witnessed a major downside over the last weekend as it moved under $38,000 today. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $37,923 with some analysts predicting there’s further downside possible.

Bloomberg’s Chief commodity strategist Mike McGlone stated that Bitcoin can once again retest the $30,000 level. He added that the 2 percent decline shown on Sunday shows Bitcoin is under pressure. The upcoming week is likely to be more challenging for risk assets.

He further shared a chart comparing Bitcoin’s correlation with Nasdaq 100 futures. However, he believes that Bitcoin could be maturing as a “global digital collateral”. McGlone wrote:

Digital #Gold Set to Prevail – Bitcoin faces deflationary forces after 2021 excesses, but the crypto shows divergent strength. With 2002 losses less than half those for the Nasdaq 100, Bitcoin may be maturing toward global digital collateral.

Mike McGlone has been bullish for Bitcoin for the year 2022. In one of his previous reports this year, McGlone said that Bitcoin price will continue to surge along with Gold. He also expects BTC to touch $100,000 levels by the end of this year.

Furthermore,  technical charts suggest that the uncertainty around the Bitcoin price will continue to persist. Technical analyst Peter Brandt shared a symmetrical triangle chart which shows that BTC will continue to range forward instead of giving a breakout in any direction.

Institutional buying continues, gold takes the lead

While Bitcoin continues to trade under pressure, institutional players continue to scoop the bottom. As per the on-chain data from Glassnode, Canada’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF has been buying more from the beginning of the year. As per data, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF has bought 5,000 additional Bitcoins in 2022. This takes its total Bitcoin holdings to 34,613.

This clearly shows that the institutional interest in the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains intact. Another on-chain data provider Santiment reported that despite the BTC price sliding down, Bitcoins continue to move off exchanges.

On the other hand, Bitcoin’s arch-rival physical Gold takes the center stage as the Russia-Ukraine crisis intensifies. The price of physical gold crossed $2,000 per ounce earlier today pushing it to a 20-month high.

Popular Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff explained that amid the recent sanctions, Russians are more likely to buy Gold instead of Bitcoin. He explains:

Russians who are looking to store their wealth in an asset that governments can’t seize are choosing #gold over #Bitcoin. Bitcoin is far too risky to be used as a safe haven or a store of value. Bitcoin has failed its first major test. I don’t think it will get a second chance!