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Bitcoin rally masks uncomfortable fact: Almost nobody uses it for spending
By Olga Kharif
Bloomberg News
Monday, June 3, 2019
Bitcoin has a lingering problem that few people are talking about amid the renewed exuberance of the recent price surge.
Hardly anyone is using the world's largest cryptocurrency for anything beyond speculation.
Data from New York-based blockchain researcher Chainalysis Inc. show that only 1.3 percent of economic transactions came from merchants in the first four months of 2019, little changed over the boom-and-bust cycles of the prior two years.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Hedging Against Volatility: Should You Consider Gold?
As investors look for ways to better manage risk and returns, one option could be to add gold to a portfolio. The yellow metal has historically moved in the opposite direction of the stock market and is often perceived as a safe-haven asset. There are many ways to invest in gold: through miners, explorers, physical gold, exchange-traded funds, and more.
In their upcoming webcast, U.S. Global Investors and ETF Trends will take a deep dive into investing in gold, highlighting a fund strategy as well as royalty and streaming companies, which many consider to be the "smart money" of the space.
The webcast will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern time, 11 a.m. Pacific time, on Thursday, June 27. To register to attend, please visit:
https://www.etftrends.com/webcasts/hedging-against-volatility-should-you...
Even though marque companies such as AT&T Inc. now let customers pay with cryptocurrencies, the problem is that few speculators want to use the digital coins to pay for wireless services when the digital asset's price might surge another 50 percent in a matter of weeks. That has become the main dilemma with the cryptocurrency: Bitcoin needs the hype to attract mass appeal to be considered a viable electronic alternative to money, but it has developed a culture of "hodlers" who advocate accumulation rather than spending. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-31/bitcoin-s-rally-masks...
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