What Will Happen to Crypto During a Recession or Stagflation?
Inflation in the US markets hit 7.9% last month - while the Federal Reserve was claiming that inflation was "transitory" all of 2021, realizing the US dollar may be in risk of systemic collapse they finally started to consider the possibility of raising interest rates (it's been near 0% for almost a decade now) -- arguably their only weapon to combat inflation at this point. (As a reference, Russia's interest rate jumped to 20%+ after their stock market collapsed after their invasion of Ukraine in late Feb.)
Increased interest rates means higher interest rates on loans, which is good for savings but bad for investment since loans become more expensive to do. Experts are predicting that a recession -- possibly a global recession -- is looming in the horizon.
What does this mean for crypto? Given that crypto's massive jump in 2020-2021 took most people by surprise there isn't too much reliable data out there but there's a few things we might be able to discern based on a few data points:
- Crypto adoption tends to be high in countries with unstable economies; the rankings vary from study to study but adoption rates in Ukraine was high, even before the war. (The US and Russia usually in the top 10.) It's interesting to note that the inflation rate in Ukraine in 2015 was almost 50% -- which makes assets like Bitcoin and other currencies much more appealing. If the major superpowers' economies become unstable, we may start to see similar patterns emerge as a result. (Japan's inflation rate has been very low for decades and their crypto adoption rates are also very low, despite being relatively friendly to the technology itself.)
- In terms of raw numbers, India has, by far, the highest number of people who own crypto (~100 million+) but their inflation rate has been climbing gradually in a similar pattern to the US in 2021. (With the officials telling people the same exact story as the Federal Reserve in the US last year -- "don't worry, it already peaked." 😂). In the same vein, most developed countries are in the same boat as the US right now as the disruptions on the global supply chain (due to COVID restrictions) continues to push inflation higher almost everywhere.
- In the short/medium term, the proposed solution by the Federal Reserve (a marginal 0.25% interest rate increase in March) isn't very likely to make that much of a difference until the Feds start to get more aggressive with the hikes. (Which they have considered as a possibility, but are wary of announcing since they know it may trigger a downturn in the markets.) Inflation is very likely to continue for the rest of 22', in other words.
- As of 20-21' lots of money has been thrown at crypto, DeFi, metaverse, and NFT projects both in business and personal deals -- many of them tied to traditional contracts in USD or fiat. (Although typically ill-advised, some people have been taking out cheap loans for crypto.) As fiat currencies become weaker, these fiat-crypto hybrid contracts are less likely to become common place, but will still make "pure" crypto deals more appealing. We might be able to estimate how much fiat money is tied to crypto assets based on market presence - BTC is the highest, by far, followed by ETH, DOGE, ADA, SHIB, XRP, DOT, SOL, etc. Coins that relied on marketing dollars to stay afloat (since it's currently only spendable in fiat money) are likely to be the most vulnerable.
- During bull runs like the ones we've seen in 20-21', marketing/hype tends to reign supreme since cheap loans and rising prices tends to create a short-term market for pump-and-dump projects. During recessionary periods, however, crypto projects with more utility is likely to come out ahead. (As Vitalik Buterin says -- he "welcomes" a crypto winter so that more serious projects can finally get the attention that they deserve.) But we don't really know if a weakened USD or fiat as a whole really will lead to a "winter" -- there is also the chance that fiat money will run to crypto as a refuge, pumping up the price as a whole. Traditional finance outsizes crypto by a huge margin, after all -- all it takes is a small % of the former to affect the latter in an exponential way.
Increased interest rates means higher interest rates on loans, which is good for savings but bad for investment since loans become more expensive to do. Experts are predicting that a recession -- possibly a global recession -- is looming in the horizon.
What does this mean for crypto? Given that crypto's massive jump in 2020-2021 took most people by surprise there isn't too much reliable data out there but there's a few things we might be able to discern based on a few data points:
- Crypto adoption tends to be high in countries with unstable economies; the rankings vary from study to study but adoption rates in Ukraine was high, even before the war. (The US and Russia usually in the top 10.) It's interesting to note that the inflation rate in Ukraine in 2015 was almost 50% -- which makes assets like Bitcoin and other currencies much more appealing. If the major superpowers' economies become unstable, we may start to see similar patterns emerge as a result. (Japan's inflation rate has been very low for decades and their crypto adoption rates are also very low, despite being relatively friendly to the technology itself.)
- In terms of raw numbers, India has, by far, the highest number of people who own crypto (~100 million+) but their inflation rate has been climbing gradually in a similar pattern to the US in 2021. (With the officials telling people the same exact story as the Federal Reserve in the US last year -- "don't worry, it already peaked." 😂). In the same vein, most developed countries are in the same boat as the US right now as the disruptions on the global supply chain (due to COVID restrictions) continues to push inflation higher almost everywhere.
- In the short/medium term, the proposed solution by the Federal Reserve (a marginal 0.25% interest rate increase in March) isn't very likely to make that much of a difference until the Feds start to get more aggressive with the hikes. (Which they have considered as a possibility, but are wary of announcing since they know it may trigger a downturn in the markets.) Inflation is very likely to continue for the rest of 22', in other words.
- As of 20-21' lots of money has been thrown at crypto, DeFi, metaverse, and NFT projects both in business and personal deals -- many of them tied to traditional contracts in USD or fiat. (Although typically ill-advised, some people have been taking out cheap loans for crypto.) As fiat currencies become weaker, these fiat-crypto hybrid contracts are less likely to become common place, but will still make "pure" crypto deals more appealing. We might be able to estimate how much fiat money is tied to crypto assets based on market presence - BTC is the highest, by far, followed by ETH, DOGE, ADA, SHIB, XRP, DOT, SOL, etc. Coins that relied on marketing dollars to stay afloat (since it's currently only spendable in fiat money) are likely to be the most vulnerable.
- During bull runs like the ones we've seen in 20-21', marketing/hype tends to reign supreme since cheap loans and rising prices tends to create a short-term market for pump-and-dump projects. During recessionary periods, however, crypto projects with more utility is likely to come out ahead. (As Vitalik Buterin says -- he "welcomes" a crypto winter so that more serious projects can finally get the attention that they deserve.) But we don't really know if a weakened USD or fiat as a whole really will lead to a "winter" -- there is also the chance that fiat money will run to crypto as a refuge, pumping up the price as a whole. Traditional finance outsizes crypto by a huge margin, after all -- all it takes is a small % of the former to affect the latter in an exponential way.
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