In late 2020 and early 2021, bitcoin became a real mania for investors. But a little-known metal managed to overtake not only all other raw materials, but also the cryptocurrency in terms of performance since January.
This is iridium – one of the rarest precious metals, which is extracted as a by-product of the processing of platinum and palladium.
Since January, the raw material has risen in price by 131%, which is significantly ahead of the performance of bitcoin, whose price rose by 85 percent over the same period.
“Its value has risen due to supply chain disruptions over the past year, as well as increased demand for raw materials for the production of electronic screens,” experts from the Heraeus Group were quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
With a market much smaller than that of more popular metals such as palladium and platinum, production and supply problems have a serious impact on prices. At the same time, predicting how the value of iridium will move is also not an easy task, as its demand is mainly served by industry.
“Delivery time is too long for a market shortage to be addressed by a timely increase in supply,” explains expert Jay Tatum of Valent Asset Management. “The only short-term solution is to raise prices to get people to sell the stockpiles of metal,” he added.
To some extent, the attractiveness of iridium also stems from the limited investment in the production of platinum, which is used in the production of automotive catalysts. According to analysts, its demand will increase in the coming years, stimulated by interest in new hydrogen technologies in the sector.
The price of iridium, which is also used to make car spark plugs, has risen to $ 6,000 an ounce. This makes it more than three times more expensive than gold, which is traded for about 1730 dollars.
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