Gold, Stocks, and Bitcoin: Weekly Overview — April 7

This week, Be[In]Crypto brings you the price movements for Bitcoin (BTC) and gold. This week’s stock pick is Meta Platforms.

BTC

Bitcoin’s recent trajectory has noticeably arced, returning roughly to where it was trading two weeks ago. On March 24, BTC pushed up, hitting $44,000, landing at $45,000 the following day.

Despite falling again, it trended upwards the next few days reaching $46,800 on March 27. By the following day, BTC was already pushing past $48,000. From there it dribbled down somewhat, reaching $47,200 by March 31, before dropping down past $44,500 as of April 1.

As if to fool with investors, buying pressure returned to BTC throughout the day, raising it as high as $47,200 on April 2. Seeing similar dips and spikes the next two days, BTC proceeded to fall past $45,000 on April 6.

It is currently trading around $43,500, as of press time.

With the ongoing sanctions brought on by its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is considering the idea of accepting Bitcoin as payment for its fossil fuel exports.

Last week, Russian energy minister Pavel Zavalny said “friendly” countries, including China, could buy gas and oil in their currencies or Bitcoin. GlobalBlock analyst Marcus Sotiriou speculates that Bitcoin could emerge as a neutral “petro-asset.”

“This adds more weight to the idea of bitcoin becoming a petro-asset after Putin recently allowed ‘friendly’ countries to pay for oil in bitcoin,” he wrote in a recent note.

GOLD

Gold is also trading similarly to the way it was two weeks ago. From around $1,930, the price of gold pushed up to $1,965 on March 24, before trailing down and dropping to $1,920 on March 28, then as low as $1,890 on March 29.

From there some buying pressure returned, pushing up to $1,935 on March 30, and nearly $1,950 on March 31. Trailing down again to $1,915 by April 4, gold spiked up to $1,950 on March 5.

It is currently trading just above $1,930, as of press time.

Gold prices rose due to inflation concerns surrounding the war in Ukraine, combined with mounting sanctions on Russia which relieved pressure from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s aggressive policy stance.

“Despite the guidance from the Fed that it wants to increase interest rates faster going forward, on the other side we still see inflation increasing,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo. “We continue to see relatively strong demand for physical (gold) bars and coins across the board with market uncertainty and concerns about economic growth down the road because of high energy prices.” 

Facebook (FB) and Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms has performed relatively well over the course of the spring.

At the beginning of March, Meta, formerly Facebook, was trading at roughly $210 before trailing down to $190 by March 8. Apart from a bump the next day, Meta persisted at this level until March 16, when it gapped up and pushed all the way to $216.

After another small dip, it continued trending upwards until reaching $230 on March 30. Despite spiking as high as $236 on April 5, Meta is currently trading just about $220.

Earlier this week, the company announced that it will introduce virtual coin, known as “Zuck Bucks,” in addition to lending services – despite its initial failure of trying to launch its own cryptocurrency via Project Diem in 2019.

According to the Financial Times the virtual currency is unlikely to be blockchain-based, with a more likely approach being in-app tokens controlled by the company formerly known as Facebook.

“We’re making changes to our product strategy and road map…so we can prioritize on building for the metaverse and on what payments and financial services will look like in this digital world,” said Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of financial department. Meta is also looking to create “social tokens” or “reputation tokens,” which could be issued to reward users for positive contributions to the network. 

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