Bitcoin The drop to around $60,000 earlier this month looked familiar, not to gold fans, but to technology investors, crypto asset manager Grayscale said in a Monday report.
As high-growth software stocks sold off, bitcoin fell at about the same rate, reinforcing the view that, for now, the world’s largest cryptocurrency is being traded more as an emerging technology than a mature store of value, according to the report.
The cryptocurrency’s design, its limited supply, its independence from governments, and a resilient, decentralized network give it the long-term qualities of a store of value. But at only 17 years old, bitcoin is still at an early stage in its monetary journey, especially compared to gold’s millennia-long history, the firm argued.
“Bitcoin can be considered a long-term store of value: the network will likely continue to function well beyond our useful life and the asset can retain its value in real terms,” wrote analyst Zach Pandl.
The cryptocurrency’s claim to be digital gold has looked increasingly weaker in recent months. Instead of serving as a safe haven, it fell sharply from its highs and moved in tandem with risk assets as investors went on the defensive.
At the same time, physical gold has reached record levels, attracting inflows just as bitcoin saw capital outflows. The split has weakened the argument that the cryptocurrency reliably maintains value during market stresses, suggesting that scarcity alone has not yet caused it to behave like gold when protection is most important.
Investing in bitcoin today is fundamentally a bet on adoption, Pandl said. Until bitcoin is widely accepted as a global monetary asset, its price will likely remain sensitive to risk appetite, rising and falling with growth-oriented portfolios rather than acting as a hedge during market stresses.
Recent market mechanisms support that view. The report noted U.S.-led selling pressure, outflows from spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and sharp deleveraging in crypto derivatives, signs that appear more like a slowdown in growth than a crisis of confidence in the network itself.
Bitcoin spot ETFs have seen a sustained streak of capital outflows, pointing to a cooling of institutional appetite. In recent weeks, U.S.-listed funds have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as investors retreated amid market volatility and falling prices. The withdrawals have dragged down total assets under management and left many positions underwater, underscoring weaker demand for ETF-based bitcoin exposure even as inflows continue into other parts of the crypto.
Looking ahead, Grayscale sees the foundations forming for a recovery beyond the near-term price action. Regulatory momentum around stablecoins and tokenized assets, combined with continued innovation in blockchain infrastructure, could drive the next phase of adoption. Platforms like Ethereum and Solana, along with middleware like Chainlink, will benefit, the company said.
The long-term test of Bitcoin is still in development. Questions about scale, fees, and even quantum resistance loom large. But the report argues that if the cryptocurrency overcomes those hurdles, its volatility should fall, correlations with stocks should fade, and its behavior could eventually resemble that of gold, only with a digital backbone.
Wall Street bank JPMorgan said the cryptocurrency’s lower volatility relative to gold could make it “more attractive” in the long term.
Read more: JPMorgan says bitcoin’s lower volatility relative to gold could make it “more attractive” in the long term
