These arguments are dishonest because they treat Bitcoin as a dual currency/asset but then only compare to the M2 money supply (currency) while ignoring the total wealth of the United States (including assets).
These arguments also confuse quantitative easing with traditional government debt spending, and they ignore that the stimulus money is designed to fill gaps in the economy left by COVID, in which case inflation would be negligible (although I think the US is overshooting that target)
They also ignore the fact that crypto isn’t the only exit for holders of USD looking to avoid inflation. They can invest in stocks or assets (crypto is a narrow subset of this), or they could exchange into the currency of another nation.
- Fed open market operations: $2.8T introduced over 9 month by the Fed in 2020[1].
- Stock market (DJIA) run-up in 2020: $2.2T [2]
I don't think this can be just correlation, even on the simplest reading of how the Fed OMO works, but there is debate about this[3].
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1. I believe M1 money is a good proxy for the Fed's open market operations that would go towards the kind of asset purchases that would increase stock equity valuation. I'd appreciate any feedback on this
[2] DJI went from $22k on Mar 1 2020 -> $30k, for an $8k change by end of year. DJI had a market cap of $8.3T when it was at $29k Dec 2019[2.1], so 8/29=0.27. 27% of 8.3T = $2.2T.
[2.1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average
[3] https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/12226/does-the...
The Fed OMO directly drives prices level/inflation. Look at the series below... the 10 year break even inflation rate[2] looks almost exactly like the stock market since the crash, but they weren't in sync before. Ofc, it's primarily being used to shore up the value of the 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate bond [3], which would otherwise look like [4]. But I think the money supply pressure effects both, and the relative quantities are on par, so seems like the pieces fit to me.
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/insights/what-is-the-quantity-t...
[2] 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/T10YIE [3] 10-Year Treasury Inflation-Indexed Security, Constant Maturity: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DFII10 [4] 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DGS10