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Ruholamin Haqshanas
Author
Ruholamin Haqshanas
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The recent Bitcoin price swings are drawing comparisons to high-growth tech stocks rather than to traditional safe-haven assets like gold, according to analysts at Swiss crypto bank Sygnum.
In a newly released market outlook, the bank’s research team questioned whether Bitcoin is still perceived as “digital gold” or if it’s increasingly being treated as a volatile proxy for the broader crypto market.
The shift in perception comes despite endorsements from prominent figures, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who have referred to Bitcoin as a potential store of value and an alternative to gold.
Bitcoin Price Volatility Mirrors High-Beta Tech Stocks
Sygnum analysts said that Bitcoin’s price swings more closely resemble those of high-beta technology equities than those of a traditional hedge asset.
They argued that Bitcoin’s fundamental value isn’t derived from applications built on its network, but rather from its status as a store of value.
“Bitcoin is mostly not a tech play,” the report states. “Only a small fraction of its value comes from network applications, while most hinges on its role as a store-of-value asset.”
Traditionally, Ethereum has been viewed as the crypto sector’s innovation hub, while Bitcoin served as a digital counterpart to gold.
But recent trends suggest Bitcoin is becoming the default exposure for new investors in crypto, further fueled by the relatively weak interest in spot Ethereum ETFs.
“This is also evidenced by the poor adoption of the Ethereum ETFs — new investors for now conclude that a Bitcoin holding is sufficient to have exposure to the crypto market,” the analysts noted
Sygnum warned that if Bitcoin continues to behave like “the Nasdaq on steroids,” it could undermine its status as a reserve asset.
The bank concluded that Bitcoin’s long-term role may ultimately be shaped by policy decisions in the U.S., which will influence whether it’s seen as a true safe-haven or just another market-sensitive asset.
Bitcoin Still a Risk Asset: Analyst
Bitcoin has long been hailed as a potential hedge against geopolitical and fiscal instability, often compared to gold as a store of value.
However, despite its decentralized nature and limited supply, Bitcoin continues to trade like a risk asset, moving in tandem with equities rather than diverging as a safe haven, according to Garrison Yang, co-founder of Web3 development studio Mirai Labs.
In a recent interview with Cryptonews.com, Yang argued that Bitcoin’s correlation with traditional financial markets remains strong, posing challenges to its hedge narrative.
For Bitcoin to establish itself as a true hedge against macroeconomic instability, Yang said that it must break its correlation with U.S. equities and other risk assets.
“It’s unlikely to become a hedge until proven to be an effective one, and the truth is that we actually haven’t seen that (even with gold),” Yang said.
He added that Bitcoin would need to undergo a significant paradigm shift, such as being adopted as a globally recognized, functional currency backed by Bitcoin itself, to truly detach from the broader financial system.
