Can Bitcoin hedge Belt and Road equity markets?

We use the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) economies to assess whether co-movements between individual BRI countries' equity markets and Bitcoin, can optimize portfolio composition. The dynamic correlations between these two asset classes persist up to 21 days out-of-sample. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a simple hedging strategy could have improved high risk-averse investors' utility, while still yielding positive returns after controlling for transaction costs. The distribution of hedge ratios and portfolio performance of a Bitcoin-BRI country hedged portfolio flattens after the country joins the BRI, indicating further research is needed to identify the underlying mechanism at work.