Really, any scarce asset is an inflation hedge if its value is not tied to the value of a fiat currency.
By not pegging the value of a Bitcoin to a fiat currency like other earlier attempts at cryptocurrencies and by limiting the number to a finite amount, Bitcoin was explicitly created as an inflation hedge.
Indeed. Having a dwindling block reward instead of an infinite one screams inflation hedge. One of the first things I looked into when discovering Bitcoin was the total supply (so that I could calculate market cap) and discovering that it was capped at 21M was the first successful "sniff test" that Bitcoin passed. If it wasn't for that 21M cap, I would have probably never looked into Bitcoin more than that first day. For me, being non-inflationary over the long term was the #1 selling point of Bitcoin upon first learning about it.