Bitcoin and the entire crypto space has caught a solid bid this morning, pushing the cryptocurrency back over $7,000 without any apparent catalyst or major news behind the move.

However, according to Andrew Zatlin of Moneyball Economics, one possible explanation is emerging as likely: Bitcoin is becoming the new safe trade.

As Zatlin explains, echoing what we first said in September 2015, emerging markets are continuously using bitcoin (BTC) as a way to get their money of their respective countries.

Crypto currencies are attractive to individuals in less developed economies for a few reasons:

Transaction costs are the same as gold. BTC's higher price volatility is offset by gold's higher conversion fees

Liquidity favors BTC

BTC only requires access to the internet

Easier to transport and hide $20,000 of BTC offsets gold's bulkiness

As recent events in Turkey and Iran show, hard currency and precious metal confiscation is a very real threat. Crypto is now a very real alternative.

Turkish citizens flocked to bitcoin as the Turkish lira continues to plummet. The lira is down nearly 40% this year alone. An insane drop for a currency.

In dollar terms, gold continues to trade lower as bitcoin catches a bid.

Here's a chart of bitcoin demand from within Venezuela

The Emerging Markets can be grouped into two categories: those that are adopting BTC and those that are panic buying. Russia is an example of a late adopter.

Examples of panic buying: Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Hungary, India, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Venezuela.

Here's Chile:

Here's Columbia:

Here's Hungary:

Here's India:

Here's Mexico:

Here's Peru:

And here's the Philippines:

One signal coming from BTC: indication of underlying economic/capital strength.

It's still a bit too early to assign a definitive value for regional BTC demand. But the fact that millions of people around the world are flocking to bitcoin is a sure sign there is a value of it.