Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz says that Bitcoin’s 2019 rally could have “real legs” given today’s turbulent macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape.

In a tweet posted on Aug. 5, Novgoratz remarked that:

“With the yuan over 7.0, an FX war, instability in HKG and the beginnings of capital flight, $Btc rally could have real legs.”

‘May you live in interesting times’

Amid a protracted trade war with the United States, China has this week redoubled its own antagonistic policies in response to recent fresh tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump: first, by allowing the yuan to sink to its lowest levels in almost a decade and second, by demanding that all state-owned firms suspend imports of U.S. agricultural products.

In response, stocks and currencies from emerging markets teetered, while safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen, U.S. Treasuries and gold saw an uptick, as Bloomberg has reported.

The bookies are meanwhile raising their bets on more interest-rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve as the trade war escalates.

All this appears to be spurring Bitcoin’s uptrend as an emerging safe-haven asset of the digital era — the coin has today surged almost 9% to trade above $11,700 by press time.

As Morgan Creek Digital Assets Anthony Pompliano tweeted:

“UPDATE: Bitcoin is performing as designed during times of global instability.”

Hong Kong has seen over 500 arrests since early June, as the Guardian reports live today, with chief executive Carrie Lam declaring this morning that the city-wide strikes and protests have pushed the Hong Kong to “to the verge of a very dangerous situation.”

“Bitcoin could easily continue to surpass expectations”

Meanwhile, popular crypto market analyst and trader Filb Filb told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s currency price action underscores its value proposition of digital scarcity. He explained:

"The market response to the depreciation of the yuan and capital flight controls imposed on Chinese citizens really emphasizes the value proposition of Bitcoin and what an increase in demand can do to price when there is such a limited supply on offer to the market [...] Bitcoin could easily continue to surpass expectations for the remainder of 2019."

A fresh report from Delphi Digital has argued that macroeconomic factors are creating the “perfect storm” to ignite Bitcoin’s price appreciation, underscoring that the faltering world economy is consolidating the cryptocurrency’s position as “digital gold.”

Ahead of his latest comments, Pompliano had for his part stated that the European Central Bank’s expected dovish turn will be “rocket fuel” for Bitcoin.

The head of global fundamental credit strategy at Deutsche Bank has also remarked that central banks’ dovish policies are positively impacting “alternative” currencies such as Bitcoin while hurting investment banks.