Bitcoin’s long-standing narrative as “digital gold” is being put to the check as its current value motion more and more resembles that of a high-risk development asset moderately than a standard protected haven, in keeping with new analysis from Grayscale.
Report writer Zach Pandl stated on Tuesday that whereas Grayscale nonetheless views Bitcoin (BTC) as a long-term retailer of worth attributable to its mounted provide and independence from central banking authorities, current market habits suggests in any other case.
“Bitcoin’s short-term value actions haven’t been tightly correlated with gold or different valuable metals,” Pandl wrote, pointing to file rallies in bullion and silver costs.
As a substitute, the evaluation discovered that Bitcoin has developed a robust correlation with software program shares, significantly since early 2024. That sector has just lately come beneath intense promoting stress amid considerations that synthetic intelligence might disrupt or render many software program providers out of date.
The report suggests Bitcoin’s rising sensitivity to equities and development property displays its deeper integration into conventional monetary markets, pushed partly by institutional participation, exchange-traded fund exercise and shifting macroeconomic threat sentiment.
The shift comes as Bitcoin has skilled a few 50% drawdown from its October peak above $126,000. The decline unfolded in a number of waves, starting with a historic October 2025 liquidation occasion, adopted by renewed promoting in late November and once more in late January 2026. Grayscale additionally pointed to “motivated US sellers” in current weeks, citing persistent value reductions on Coinbase.
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A part of Bitcoin’s ongoing evolution
Bitcoin’s current failure to stay as much as its safe-haven narrative shouldn’t be seen as a setback however moderately as a part of the asset’s ongoing evolution, in keeping with Grayscale.
Pandl stated it will have been unrealistic to count on Bitcoin to displace gold as a financial asset in such a brief interval.
“Gold has been used as cash for hundreds of years and served because the spine of the worldwide financial system till the early Nineteen Seventies,” Pandl wrote.
Whereas Bitcoin’s failure to achieve the same financial standing is “central to the funding thesis,” he stated, it might evolve in that path over time as the worldwide financial system turns into more and more digitized by way of synthetic intelligence, autonomous brokers and tokenized monetary markets.
Within the close to time period, Bitcoin’s restoration might depend upon contemporary capital getting into the market, both by way of renewed ETF inflows or a return of retail traders. Market maker Wintermute stated retail participation has just lately been concentrated in AI-related shares and development narratives, limiting near-term demand for crypto property.
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