If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When The ECB Said It's 'Irrelevant' Here's How Much You Would Have Today

On Feb.22, Europe's leading financial authority, the European Central Bank (ECB) doubled down on its criticism of Bitcoin BTC/USD, saying it has "no fair value." 

But that was not the first time the ECB criticized the apex crypto. Here’s a look back at what the ECB said in November 2022 when Bitcoin traded at its lowest levels.

What Happened: In its latest blog post, the central bank termed the approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Bitcoin as "the naked emperor’s new clothes."

The ECB expressed skepticism about Bitcoin's status as a global decentralized digital currency, citing concerns of fraud and manipulation. It termed Bitcoin a "speculative bubble" and "not suitable for investment."

But the ECB has said similar things about Bitcoin in the past.

In a blog post titled "Bitcoin’s Last Stand" from November 2022, the ECB argued that Bitcoin's market valuation is based on speculation rather than tangible cash flows or dividends.

The report had further characterized Bitcoin as "an artificially induced last gasp before the road to irrelevance," particularly noting the price drop below $16,000 following FTX's collapse.

The ECB is still skeptical about Bitcoin's price performance, suggesting that while short-term rises may occur, there is no "fair value" for making serious forecasts.

“Bitcoin is an all-around lousy investment and clunky means of payment,” according to the ECB's Director General for Market Infrastructure and Payments Ulrich Bindseil and Advisor Jürgen Schaaf.

Read Next: 'It's Not That Decentralized': SEC Chair Gary Gensler Hesitant On Bitcoin, Calls It 'Just An Accounting Ledger'

Crypto Community Backlash: Notably, the ECB post got "community noted" on X (formerly Twitter), reflecting its biased perspective on the crypto king.

The post was met with heavy backlash, with commentators pointing to the fact that the Euro is consistently losing purchasing power against Bitcoin.

Daniel Batten, Managing Partner at CH4 Capital, tweeted the ECB should "keep the FUD coming." 

Lawrence Lepard, an investment manager and Austrian economist, said:

 

ECB: “the fair value of Bitcoin is still zero”

Ok ECB, how about you give me some at that price because last time I checked the market price was $52,000.

Only a central bank is capable of making such a galacticly stupid comment. 

— Lawrence Lepard, "fix the money, fix the world" (@LawrenceLepard) February 22, 2024

Gabor Gurbacs, Strategy Advisor for Tether and VanEck tweeted:

 

European Central Bank (ECB): "ETF approval for Bitcoin the naked emperor's new clothes."

Also the ECB, fully clothed: pic.twitter.com/4RXIsYXXwd

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) February 22, 2024

With Bitcoin at a 52-week high, social media users highlighted the ECB’s 2022 blog post and comments on Bitcoin.

Here's a look at the outcome of a hypothetical investment in Bitcoin at the time of ECB’s blog post.

Investing $1,000 in Bitcoin: On Nov. 30, 2022, the day of the ECB's last blog post, Bitcoin was trading for $16,761.19. The cryptocurrency hit a high of $17,013.24 that day, which will be used for the illustration of this hypothetical investment.

An investor could have purchased 0.05878 BTC on Nov. 30, 2022, with $1,000. The $1,000 investment would be worth $3,035.21 today, based on a price of $51,638.75 for Bitcoin at the time of writing.

This marks a hypothetical gain of +204% from the time of ECB’s 2022 blog post.

For comparison, the same $1,000 invested in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500 stock market index, would be worth $1,244.68.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF investment would be up 24.5% over the same period.

This means an investment in Bitcoin at the time of the ECB’s criticism significantly outperformed the broad stock market over the same period.

Also Read: ECB's Lagarde Rejects Recession Label For Europe, Recalls Yellen's 'Forget It' Remark

Image created using artificial intelligence with MidJourney.