Retail investors will prefer Bitcoin over the dollar if US defaults: survey

• Retail investors would prefer Bitcoin over the dollar in case of a default, a new survey says.
• A US default could be here as early as June 1, experts have warned.
• Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick previously predicted a 70% jump for Bitcoin price in case of a US default.

A new survey has found that retail investors would prefer to buy Bitcoin (BTC) over the dollar in the event of a US default.

According to the report, while gold and Treasury’s ranked higher on the list of trusted safe haven assets in case of a US default, BTC was seen as the third best asset, ahead of the US dollar.

Retail investors would buy BTC over the dollar

The results were from a survey conducted by Bloomberg’s Markets Live Pulse. The researchers had asked investors to indicate what they would buy were the US government to spiral to a debt ceiling.

Gold was the top pick as 51.7% of professional investors and 45.7% of retail investors going for the precious metal. A significant percentage chose Treasurys, with 14% and 15.1% of professionals and retail investors respectively showing faith with the asset class.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin ranked third among the responses as 7.8% of professional investors and 11.3% of retail investors picked it over the dollar. Per the survey, about 7.8% of professional investors and 10.2% of retail investors said they would still buy the dollar.

Bitcoin price predictions in case of US default

The US faces a default that could hit as early as 1 June 2023 should lawmakers fail to strike a deal to lift the $31.4 trillion debt limit. Stock investors were on Monday upbeat on a possible deal. However, stocks were mainly weak as reports of no consensus on the cards yet emerged.

Bitcoin on the other hand remained poised above $27,400 as analysts projected a potential decline to support levels seen last week or lower. However, with the BTC price having rode the banking crisis to break above $31,000, it is possible a default could provide fresh fuel for more gains.

As CoinJournal recently highlighted, this Bitcoin price prediction had been put forth by Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick. In his prediction, the head of FX research at Standard Chartered said the BTC price could explode by 70% in the event of a default.

While he suggested an initial drop on the day, or two or week, of the default would likely clip bulls by $5k or so, the analyst believes the price of the digital gold could see a new $20,000 leg.