Bitcoin appears less volatile than before

SINGAPORE — Compared to major market indexes that breached record highs despite the Covid-19 economic fallout, bitcoin appears “less volatile” than before.

That’s according to Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares, which sells investments in digital currencies.

“Everything else has become more volatile,” Demirors told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.

“As we know, volatility is a relative measure,” she said. “In the current environment, bitcoin is actually less volatile than it has been in the past.”

To illustrate the point, the strategist compared the gains between bitcoin and electric carmaker Tesla‘s stock.

Tesla’s shares, which were added to the broader S&P 500 index on Monday, have soared more than 676% so far this year. Meanwhile, bitcoin has risen about 220% year-to-date as of midnight EST Tuesday, according to Coin Metrics.

“If we look at the astronomical rise in the equities market, bitcoin’s rise actually doesn’t feel so wild,” Demirors said.

Following sharp declines early in 2020, markets across the globe have been powered mostly by unprecedented monetary stimulus introduced by central banks worldwide in a bid to keep the economy running.

Beyond investors’ shifting perceptions of volatility, Demirors added that the industry surrounding bitcoin has matured and evolved over the last two years.

Hedge fund managers Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones are two well-known investors who invested in bitcoin and highlighted its potential as an inflation hedge. Large investors new to cryptocurrency also appear to have driven bitcoin’s rally in the last few months, according to data firm Chainalysis.

“It used to be career risk to get exposure to bitcoin, now it is a career risk to not have exposure to bitcoin,” Demirors said. “The world has certainly changed a lot over the last nine months.”

— CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report.