Summary As of this week, Treasury Bills are outperforming Bitcoin on the year. The MoneyShow Chart of the Day compares the total return of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) to the State Street SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL), the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). Some holders got scared out of crypto by the liquidation event back in mid-October. Others are trading crypto as a tech stock-adjacent asset, so recent selling in Nasdaq and AI names has spilled over into the crypto world. By Mike Larson You might want to sit down for this one. As of this week, Treasury Bills are outperforming Bitcoin on the year! The bigger question for cryptocurrency traders, of course, is what happens next ? Take a look at the MoneyShow Chart of the Day, which compares the total return of the State Street SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF ( BIL ) to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF ( IBIT ). There it is in purple and orange - a gain of 3.6% vs. a loss of 1.7%. Bitcoin's relative performance looks a little worse against the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF ( TLT ), up 5.7%. And it looks hideous when compared to the SPDR Gold Shares ( GLD ), up 53.4%. BIL, IBIT, GLD, TLT (YTD Total Return) (Data by YCharts) What’s happening? As this Bloomberg story notes : “Once promoted as a high-growth play, an inflation hedge, and a portfolio diversifier, the world’s largest cryptocurrency now faces the prospect of ending the year in the red - without fulfilling any of those roles.” Some holders got scared out of crypto by the liquidation event back in mid-October. Others are trading crypto as a tech stock-adjacent asset, so recent selling in Nasdaq and AI names has spilled over into the crypto world. Plus, the euphoria surrounding a lighter regulatory touch in Washington and broad-based ETF inflows has faded. Can anything turn the ship around? It’ll likely take a broader stabilization in the tech sector to rekindle risk-on trading in crypto. If Federal Reserve rate cut forecasts pick up, and the US dollar rolls back over, that could help, too. The passage of time and some sideways chop could also set the stage for a fresh leg up by weeding out the weak hands. At some point before long, though, I’d venture that Bitcoin will find its footing - and outperform T-Bills. Not by a small margin, either! Originally published on MoneyShow.com Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
