Economic slowdown is here—Bitcoin’s utility is even more crucial

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For years, economic forecasters have warned that the post-pandemic boom was unsustainable. Now, the cracks are showing, and the data makes it clear: the global economy is slipping into a downturn.

Equity indexes are in retreat. BTC is tumbling alongside traditional markets. Layoffs are piling up. Inflation isn’t tamed. And most worryingly, the number of underwater mortgages—people owing more than their homes are worth—is reaching generational highs.

Yet despite all this, some people still think that holding “useless” cryptocurrencies—coins that do nothing—is a hedge against recession.

That’s where the narrative needs to change for normal people. 

The mirage of “Hodling” as a recession hedge

The traditional idea behind Bitcoin as a hedge was that it would serve as an alternative to failing fiat currencies. The thinking was simple: governments would print too much money, inflation would spiral, and people would flock to BTC as a safe haven, citing things like Cyprus bank bail-in from 2013. 

Bitcoin bubble-heads are using the Cyprus crisis as an excuse to bid tulip bulbs, I mean Bitcoins, to the moon.

— Jesse Colombo (@TheBubbleBubble) April 3, 2013

Except that’s still not happening.

When markets crashed in 2020, BTC crashed right along with them. When inflation spiked in 2022, BTC didn’t decouple—it just became another speculative asset trading on macro sentiment, and it underperformed things like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock over the ensuing years. 

And today, as the economy slows, BTC is slipping again, proving once more that it is not the hedge its proponents promised. Why? Because a coin that does nothing cannot store value.

For an asset to be a hedge, it has to be useful. Gold has real-world utility. Real estate produces income. Stocks represent ownership in functioning businesses. Even oil and commodities can be traded for actual economic value.

On the other hand, BTC is just sitting there—held in wallets, hoping that someday, someone will buy it for more. That’s not an investment strategy. That’s a collective delusion.

The economy is slowing; markets are cracking. Now what?

This isn’t just about BTC’s failure as a recession hedge—it’s about how broken the economy has become.

• The Freddie Mac underwater mortgage list is ballooning. More people owe more on their homes than the market says they’re worth, a sign that a housing downturn is brewing.
• Equities are facing reality. After years of artificial liquidity injections, markets are slipping back to fundamentals, meaning corporate earnings and efficiency are more important than ever.
• The gig economy is accelerating the decay of the middle class. More workers are being forced into temporary, unstable jobs with no benefits, no pensions, and no long-term security.

This is the bust phase of the cycle. But the way forward isn’t to retreat into “hodling” useless assets. It’s to build a more efficient, productive economy—one that removes middlemen, lowers friction and makes economic activity cheaper and faster while also giving people real equity that they can keep in their own possession without needing to trust a custodian. 

Bitcoin’s real hedge: Utility, not speculation

The only form of Bitcoin that makes sense in this climate is Bitcoin which reduces inefficiencies in global commerce—Bitcoin that lowers transaction costs, removes intermediaries, and enables a borderless, low-cost economy to flourish.

That’s what Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin to do. Not sit idle in wallets or be monitored on the charts of bucket shop exchanges. Bitcoin is supposed to move, transact, and reduce friction in trade, identity and payments.

• Micropayments can lower the cost of financial transactions. When recessions hit, businesses tighten margins. Traditional payment rails cut out every transaction. Bitcoin can make payments instantly and for nearly free.
• Smart contracts should be replacing inefficient bureaucracies. The boom-bust cycle is partially fueled by government inefficiency and state/corporate misallocation of capital. Bitcoin-based data integrity solutions could eliminate billions in waste.
• Stablecoins and tokenized assets need to replace the fragile, debt-based economy. Our current system is propped up on shaky credit structures. Bitcoin enables a more transparent, decentralized financial infrastructure.

None of this happens on BTC because BTC has become a speculative gambling token backed by fake fiat and marketed like a Ponzi scheme…

They should add USDT to the New York Stock Exchange so Paolo can stop the recession from happening.

— Kurt Wuckert Jr | GorillaPool.com (@kurtwuckertjr) March 10, 2025

Change can only happen on scalable Bitcoin: Satoshi’s Vision, if you will… 

The real fix: Efficiency in markets, governments, and trade

The boom-bust cycle is a feature of the global economy. It will always happen. But what determines who survives and thrives in these cycles is who embraces efficiency and innovation—and who gets caught holding the bag.

We need to:

• Make commerce more efficient through scalable Bitcoin and micropayments that lower costs for businesses and individuals.
• Make government more efficient by cutting waste, automating bureaucracy, and demanding transparency in economic policy.
• Re-embrace global free trade—not the crony capitalism that distorts markets, but real open commerce that fosters prosperity through free competition and low-cost transactions.

Bitcoin was invented to eliminate the need for reserves, custodians, and centralized payment processors. Instead of hoarding a broken version of it, we should be using it to make the global economy stronger, faster, and more resilient.

The recession is coming. What matters is who is prepared for it.

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