Legendary trader Mark Fisher sees similarities between the dramatic ascent of the bitcoin price and the trajectory that the silver price took during the 1970s.
Fisher, founder and CEO of futures clearing merchant MBF Clearing, told CNBC’s “Fast Money: Halftime Report” that he believes bitcoin’s dramatic year-to-date run-up is the modern-day equivalent of the silver run in the late 1970s following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.
“Bitcoin was what silver was back in the late ’70s and ’80s — for sure,” he said. ” “No rhyme or reason.”
In January 1970, an ounce of silver was traded at an average of $6.08 Over the course of the decade, the silver price doubled, an understandable phenomenon considering that the U.S. dollar decoupled from the price of gold in 1971. However, in 1979, the price of silver began to explode, and by the end of the year, it had more than quadrupled. In January 1980, silver reached an all-time high of $49.45 — $111.84 in today’s dollars — after which it began a prolonged decline that ultimately saw it bottom out at $4.05 in 2001.
bitcoin price
Inflation-Adjusted Chart to Show the Price of Silver in Today’s Dollars | Source: MacroTrends
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has risen approximately 1,500% in the past year, and on Tuesday it pierced $12,000 for the first time.