In brief
- Buying $1,200 worth of BTC on April 15 would have given you $4,200+ worth today.
- The US government awarded stimulus payments up to $1,200 for individuals in April.
- A smaller second round of US stimulus payments was approved this week.
With a second round of stimulus payments—albeit half-sized ones—approved by the United States Congress this week, there is renewed chatter over the potential opportunities for US citizens to use their pandemic-driven government payments to buy Bitcoin.
As Twitter accounts such as BitcoinCritics and BitcoinStimulus pointed out this week, the $1,200 individual stimulus payment amount invested in Bitcoin on April 15 would be worth more than $4,200 today, thanks to a 350% climb in the price of the cryptocurrency.
The price of Bitcoin sat at $6,629 on April 15, according to CoinGecko, with the value still diminished by the mid-March market crash as COVID-19 began impacting the West. As of this writing, the price of Bitcoin is now $23,382 following a recent bull run that saw an all-time high price of $24,225 set this past Sunday.
The first US stimulus payments went out in mid-April, with up to $1,200 paid per eligible individual and $2,400 for married couples, with $500 for minor dependents.
The newly-passed stimulus measure will award a further $600 max to eligible individuals and $1,200 to married couples, with $600 for minor dependents. Payments will be sent in the coming weeks, however some people who received the initial stimulus payment may not be eligible this time around, thanks to more stringent regulations on income and status.
Shortly after the original round of US stimulus checks, analysts told Decrypt that governments “printing money” to deal with the pandemic could ultimately benefit the price of Bitcoin. Some $8 trillion in stimulus payments had already been enacted by global governments as of May 1, and the growing government debt and depreciation of fiat currency created a situation ripe for increased interest and value in cryptocurrencies.
With a smaller second round of US stimulus checks and COVID-19 vaccines rolling out around the globe, will investing $600 in Bitcoin now yield anywhere near the same kind of return eight months later?
Payments should start rolling out in January, so ask us again in September 2021. Crypto Twitter will be keeping tabs in the meantime, no doubt.