While a myriad of non-cryptocurrency related factors can explain this decline — indeed, the WGC
highlights weak demand for jewellery as being a particularly prominent contributory factor — it certainly begs the question: Are investors adding bitcoin and other digital currencies to their portfolios in place of gold?
The export bounce is, at face value, a sign that China's modest economic revival is intact and suggestive of global
demand being on the mend, but imports were surprisingly
weak, falling 15.2 percent from a year earlier to 13 - month lows and
highlighting vulnerability lurking in the domestic economy.