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Iran is encouraging its citizens to invest their money in the already struggling oil—prompting Bitcoiners to point out the asset’s flaws.
President of Iran Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday during a televised cabinet meeting that the US dollar and gold “are not the places to be investing”—but oil and the stock market are.
The economy of the OPEC nation Iran has been battered by coronavirus pandemic, US sanctions and the faltering demand for oil.
Oil demand has taken a big hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, the OPEC said in a report today, with the world demand expected to drop by 9.1 million barrels per day this year.
And in April, the oil market took a serious beating when an expiring oil futures contract scheduled for delivery in May through West Texas Intermediate fell by more than 100%—causing oil prices to drop below zero.
But this didn’t stop the Iranian government on Monday pushing an idea to pre-sell its citizens 220 million barrels of oil the energy exchange, according to Reuters.
All this oil talk got Bitcoin advocate and Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss to give his favorite cryptocurrency a plug.
Oil is not a reliable store of value. #Bitcoin.https://t.co/vhOi9hFskr
— Cameron Winklevoss (@winklevoss) August 12, 2020
Bitcoin—unlike oil, which has struggled to recover since the April crash—has made an incredible recovery since it crashed right along with stocks earlier this year.
The asset hit an all-time high correlation with gold as traditional markets sank this month.
Both assets have since declined but Bitcoin is still looking healthy, today standing at $11,594, according to CoinMarketCap data.
If a store of value is the objective, maybe Rouhani should be urging his citizens to invest in Bitcoin instead? Then again, that wouldn't do much to help the struggling economy of the oil-rich nation.