Bitcoin (BTC) may be gaining thanks to “economic fear” over coronavirus — but only up to a point, analysts are concluding as the disease spreads.

The cryptocurrency hovered at around $9,000 on Tuesday, capping 4% gains for the week in which coronavirus sent China into partial lockdown.

Coronavirus uncertainty creeps into markets

Fears are now surfacing about the impact on Chinese economic growth, while global signals also suggest investors are more cautious about the short term.

For Cointelegraph Markets analyst Mati Greenspan, the sentiment is already palpable. Uploading a chart of United States bond yields, he noted one-month performance delivered higher returns than the longer seven-year options.

“It means investors are expecting trouble in the short term,” he explained in comments.

Such economic uncertainty and unease on markets have often sparked increased bullish action for Bitcoin. As Cointelegraph noted, the Iran crisis earlier this month was just the latest geopolitical event that appeared to buoy the Bitcoin price.

While Greenspan noted Bitcoin remained a highly non-correlated asset, mainstream media claims that Bitcoin was defying traditional markets and gaining purely on the back of coronavirus were widely panned.

A report by the Financial Times with the headline “Coronavirus is good for Bitcoin” came in for particular criticism. Notably, the report cited two random Twitter accounts dedicated to altcoin XRP as sources.

As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin has long exhibited increasingly strong technical fundamentals, which preceded recent price moves.

Vays: virus would “hurt” BTC in epidemic scenario

Discussing the impact of coronavirus, trader Tone Vays nonetheless stopped short of agreeing with the idea that the disease could perpetually fuel further gains.

If it were to spread internationally, for example, panicked investors would likely reduce speculative activity, meaning less interest in non-traditional assets such as Bitcoin.

On the latest episode of his Trading Bitcoin YouTube series, Vays told viewers:

“The coronavirus does bring some economic fear, so the fear that the coronavirus could start to spread is certainly helping the rise of Bitcoin versus hurting the rise of Bitcoin.”

Vays also noted that Bitcoin would need to stay above $9,000 for several days to cement its recent bullish gains.

Google search data for “coronavirus” and “Bitcoin.” Source: Google Trends

Meanwhile, data from Google Trends appears to underscore the lack of correlation between the crisis and Bitcoin, with search interest in the latter remaining comparatively flat throughout the past month.