In an ironic twist of events, it seems the digital currency advisory from Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, to his fellow citizens last year to avoid Bitcoin proves less beneficial compared to his opposition rival’s opinion. A year ago, Trudeau denounced Pierre Poilievre’s suggestion that Canadians should consider bitcoin for their portfolios to overcome inflation, tagging it as “not responsible leadership.” However, with a 15% gain in the last calendar year, Bitcoin has demonstrated a stronger industrial performance, triumphing inflation and even the S&P 500.
This comes amidst the acknowledgement that several Liberal Members of Parliament, contrary to Trudeau’s public sentiment, own virtual asset investments. Furthermore, the digital asset ownership appears to be evenly split between the Liberal and Conservative Parties signaling that perhaps Trudeau’s cautionary take on crypto isn’t a universally accepted view within his own camp.
While Trudeau’s warning was followed by a significant crypto winter, Poilievre’s advice demonstrated significant foresight – an inflation rate of 6.8% per Statistics Canada was outperformed by Bitcoin’s year on year gain. And it wasn’t just Bitcoin that exhibited strong performance, CoinDesk Currency Select Index (CCYS) and the CoinDesk Currency Index (CCY) from CoinDesk Indices also posted positive numbers, gaining 14.8% and 13% respectively over the year.
However, the crypto landscape isn’t a wholesale success story. Some tokens such as Decentraland’s MANA and Axie Infinity’s AXS witnessed a considerable decrease, plunging 65% and 70% respectively. Other declines included Binance-linked BNB (30% drop) and Ether (8% drop).
From actively purchasing items with bitcoin to officially disclosing his shares in Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC), Pierre Poilievre displays a positive attitude towards digital assets, unlike his peer on the other side of the aisle. Along with Poilievre, other Parliament Members and civil servants have also confessed their digital assets holdings.
Owning Bitcoin, Ether, and units of 3iQ’s Bitcoin fund, plus Ether fund in 2021, a Liberal MP representative in Ontario, “Chandra” Arya presents a contrast to Trudeau’s view. Joël Lightbound, another representative from the Liberal Party, displays his crypto faith by owning Purpose’s Bitcoin and Ether ETFs along with Bitcoin and Solana tokens.
Despite the varied experience of the crypto community, as evidenced by the diverse performance of various coins and tokens, it appears that Canadian leadership sees a place for digital assets in the financial landscape. As many may view this as contradicted by popular belief, or even a bit anarchic, it puts a new impression on the emancipating power of digital currency. Nonetheless, as it continues to weave in the financial fabric, it will be insightful to see how crypto assets will be further developed, implemented, and regulated within the financial sphere.
Source: Coindesk
