Odd Lots
Bitcoin Isn’t Behaving as an Inflation Hedge. Its Move Still Makes Sense
A bitcoin ATM is seen inside the Big Apple Tobacco Shop on February 08, 2021, in New York City.
Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
There’s no question that Bitcoin often gets sold as an inflation hedge. So much of the story is about the Fed printing all this money and how there’s only 21 million bitcoin, and so something something something, the number will go up due to inflation. You’ve heard it a million times.
Well, today we got one of the hottest inflation prints in years. By one measure, the consumer price index had its fastest gain since 2009. So how’s Bitcoin doing? Not great. Here’s the intraday chart, with the time of the CPI print marked by the vertical line