In a recent podcast discussion about the cryptocurrency market, an industry media source partnered with a cryptocurrency analyst, Naeem Aslam. Joining the conversation was the CEO of Tokenmetrics, Ian Balina. The episode was about the impact of the novel coronavirus, called COVID-19, on the world's cryptocurrency markets.

Many people are wondering if there will be any short- or long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the cryptocurrency markets. Specifically, some industry analysts think that COVID-19 will cause people to flock to cryptocurrencies as investments because so many stock markets have taken a dive.

Aslam is skeptical of the so-called safe haven status of Bitcoin. He emphasized that Bitcoin is a haven from central bank fiscal policies, not infectious diseases. Aslam stated that right now there is no fear around the influence of central banks on monetary policies. The fear is about the influence of COVID-19. If there is something wrong with a particular monetary policy, then there could be momentum around Bitcoin.

Balina also rejected the idea that cryptocurrency values and volumes are related to the COVID-19 outbreak that may soon become an official pandemic. Balina stated that they do not personally invest or trade based on any specific event. COVID-19 has not been proven to have a correlation with Bitcoin values or cryptocurrency more generally. Because Bitcoin is a global asset, and there are global events going on at the same time, it is difficult to point at one particular event and say that it is a catalyst for Bitcoin or cryptocurrency values.

Balina went on to say that he thinks it is actually the opposite. He believes that indirectly, equities have had a big selloff in which more than $1.7 trillion was lost in a few days. He thinks that cryptocurrencies are playing off of the stock market losses that took place over the past week. Both Aslam and Balina shared that they think the long-term outlook for the various cryptocurrencies is positive, especially compared to the stock market. They shared their thoughts about if Ethereum would go past Bitcoin in the market cap and the impact of Bitcoin's halving.