Japanese crypto firm FXCoin's senior strategist thinks a depreciation of the Chinese yuan may lead more traders to Bitcoin in 2020.

FXCoin's Yasuo Matsuda spoke to Cointelegraph Nippon, maxim Bitcoin (BTC) would likely be more popular among Chinese nationals facing economic sanctions due to national security laws as part of the government'due south response to the COVID-nineteen pandemic.

The strategist said people in China would be "frustrated with the recession of the domestic economic system" and looking for an escape:

China's strong position on legislation like the enactment of the Hong Kong national security law has been conspicuous, but the impact of the coronavirus has caused the domestic economic system to fall into a recession. The incentive to movement assets abroad is high, and if the legislation leads to economical sanctions from the United States, BTC will likely become even more than popular.

Matsuda pointed out the yuan and BTC are not always correlated in the same management. However, he expects that a depreciation in the yuan could invite Chinese traders to purchase more Bitcoin in 2020.

...when the yuan goes down, it incentivizes residents in China to motion their assets overseas considering their values reject in dollar terms. This causes further depreciation of the yuan. However, as the Chinese regulation of majuscule flight is very strict, some run across Bitcoin every bit the manner to go. That is why BTC functions as a flight-to-safe asset.

The value of the yuan fell during the trade war betwixt the United States and China in 2019, dropping sharply in May until it reached a low in September. Though it slightly rebounded in Jan, the yuan is at its lowest value — 0.1404 USD — in 2020, a toll approaching values in 2008.

Hisashi Oki of Cointelegraph Japan contributed to this article