Research: Bitcoin has not yet fully replaced gold as a store of value

Bitcoin, despite being often referred to as "digital gold" and its scarcity and decentralisation, has yet to fully replace gold as a store of value, according to new academic research. The research found that bitcoin exhibits high volatility, which is inconsistent with traditional safe-haven asset behavior and more similar to speculative assets. Andrew Urquhart, professor of finance at Birmingham Business School, pointed out that bitcoin may outperform gold as a risk hedge in the short term, but lacks gold's historical record, stability and crisis-tested resilience. As institutional investment increases and the market matures, bitcoin may gradually develop into a more gold-like asset, but for now the two are more complementary than replacement.