People Mortgaging Their Homes To Buy Bitcoin, Report Says
December 12, 2017

CBS Local — How much would you put at risk to invest in the hottest
digital currency in the world? For some people, the skyrocketing value
of Bitcoin is worth putting their own homes at stake.

According to reports, a number of investors looking to cash in on the
soaring prices have resorted to putting their houses up as collateral
to fund the venture.

“We’ve seen mortgages being taken out to buy bitcoin. People do credit
cards, equity lines,” Joseph Borg of North American Securities
Administrators Association said, via Business Insider.

The president of the securities firm added that he believes the risks
outweigh the rewards tied to the popular cryptocurrency. “This is not
something a guy who’s making $100,000 a year, who’s got a mortgage and
two kids in college ought to be invested in.”

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/12/12/bitcoin-price-mortgage-homes-investment/

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Ron Paul ‘Surprised’ His Followers Prefer Bitcoin to Gold

As CCN reported, the libertarian-leaning Ron Paul conducted an
informal poll that asked respondents where they would invest a $10,000
gift that came with one string attached — you cannot touch the
investment for 10 years. Voters were given four options to choose
from: U.S. dollars, gold, bitcoin, or a U.S. Treasury bond.

    A wealthy person wants to gift you $10,000. You get to choose in
which form you'll take the gift. But there's a catch: You must keep
the gift in the form that you choose, and you can't touch it for 10
years.

    In which form would you take the gift?

    — Ron Paul (@RonPaul) December 5, 2017

More than half of the 70,513 respondents chose bitcoin, while 36
percent signaled that they prefer the long-term stability of gold.
Only 10 percent of voters responded that they would prefer to hold the
investment in cash or government bonds.

“It was a reflection of what happened today,” Paul said, alluding to
bitcoin’s cinematic ascent. “Of course, bitcoin is very exciting, and
it’s booming, but [bitcoin investors] don’t have a long-term
perspective. What’s it going to be like in 10 years? Nobody knows. But
we have a pretty good idea of where gold will be, in a general sense.”

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Hedge Funds Abandon Gold To Chase Bitcoin

Since the beginning of December, gold and bitcoin have drastically diverged.

For the first 11 months of this year, gold and bitcoin were largely
positively correlated (albeit low at 0.25). That changed at the start
of December

As it seems gold's relative tranquility was shunned in favor of
Bitcoin's chaos...

And hedge fund managers dumping their gold positions and, as the chart
below shows, piling into digital gold...

Who knows how long this regime shift will last, but we do note that
Gold/Bitcoin is at a critical level of overbought-ness once again...
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Investors are dumping gold to buy bitcoin, says strategist - CNBC.com

"Over the last two years, every time rates have come down, and this
week rates have moved lower, you had gold go up," he said Friday in a
"Trading Nation" segment on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "Almost every time,
there has been an 82 percent correlation between gold and bonds. This
week, for the first time, that correlation broke down, and I do think
it has something to do with bitcoin."

According to McDonald, there could be even more downside for gold,
given the rapid growth of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and otherwise.

"If you add up all the cryptocurrencies and the liquid gold that's in
the market right now, the cryptocurrencies in market cap are now 23
percent of the liquid tradeable gold," he said. "That's up from 2 or 3
percent a year ago, so cryptocurrencies are definitely eating into the
gold play."

In fact, while gold has fallen more than 2 percent in the past month,
bitcoin has actually more than doubled its value in that time,
according to Coinbase.

Following the launch of bitcoin futures contracts on the CBOE, bitcoin
soared and was around $16,800 Monday morning. Gold, on the other hand,
was still sitting near its July lows.

Phillip Streible, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, says that
the performance of bitcoin futures contracts, the first of which began
trading on the Cboe on Sunday, will be a key determinant of gold's
next move.

"If all of a sudden we see bitcoin futures go into a free fall and
collapse, [gold will benefit]," he said last week on "Power Lunch."
"Safe haven, store of value, it will start to get people back."

The next exchange to launch bitcoin futures contracts will be the CME
on Dec. 18.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/11/investors-are-dumping-gold-to-buy-bitcoin-says-strategist.html

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Investors Dumping Gold For Bitcoin?

Investors are dumping gold in favor of Bitcoin, according to analysts
in a recent interview on CNBC. One of them, Phillip Streible of RJO
Futures stated boldly that “Bitcoin has stolen a large market share of
gold.”

To explain how they are tracking this shift, Larry McDonald of The
Bear Traps Report, stated that generally when bond rates go down, gold
goes up. However, in recent weeks, the yields on bonds have decreased,
and gold has simultaneously dropped by two percent - an event that is
quite rare.

Analysts think the change is the result of increasing investments in
Bitcoin, among other cryptocurrencies. According to McDonald:

    "Over the last two years, every time rates have come down, and
this week rates have moved lower, you had gold go up. Almost every
time, there has been an 82 percent correlation between gold and bonds.
This week, for the first time, that correlation broke down, and I do
think it has something to do with Bitcoin.”

While the price of gold has been traditionally stable, the recent
declines show the investment pool has begun moving into
cryptocurrencies. In fact, according to McDonald, the total market cap
of all cryptocurrencies as a fraction of liquid tradeable gold is
already up two or three percent from last year, stating
“cryptocurrencies are definitely eating into the gold play.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/investors-dumping-gold-for-bitcoin

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Bitcoin sends price of gold FALLING as investors dump secure
investment for cryptocurrency

Tue, Dec 12, 2017

BITCOIN is overtaking gold in popularity for investors as the price
soars, analysts have said.

On Sunday evening Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) launched its
Bitcoin futures contract which saw Bitcoin hit $17,178. Gold is not
experiencing the same amount of success.