Should ASX investors own Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) as a defensive investment?

The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price stands at US$55,900 (AU$72,600) at the time of writing. That’s up 3.3% over the past 24 hours. However, the Bitcoin price is still down 8.7% from its all-time highs of just over US$61,520, which it reached this past Sunday.

If you’re familiar with cryptocurrencies at all, you’ll know they have a notorious history of volatility. According to data from CoinDesk, just last year you could have bought one Bitcoin for US$5,700. If you’d held onto it, you’d be sitting on a gain of 880% today.

But price swings run in the other direction too

Sticking to just the past 30 days, Bitcoin was trading for…