Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is off to slow start this year, but the political landscape in the U.S. should keep that “digital gold” narrative in place. That doesn’t mean the main crypto trade will rise and fall along with gold. Recall last year that gold was a better buy than Bitcoin. But founders in the space think that it will continue to decouple from the tech stocks and be seen as a highly speculative gold alternative with a lot of upside.
“Bitcoin doesn’t respond to politics—it responds to math and in periods of global stress, we see it is clearly decoupling from tech and re-entering the macro conversation, pricing credibility rather than growth stories,” said Travis VanderZanden, founder & CEO of the fintech crypto savings firm called Buck.
VanderZanden, also known as the founder of scooter sharing service Bird, now owned by Third Lane Mobility, said Bitcoin trading activity is becoming less speculative. Investors are holding it long, just as they would the SPDR Gold (NYSE:GLD) ETF.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (NYSE:GBTC) is around 1.8% so far this year while GLD is up over 10%. The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) fund, often seen as the real gold alt, is up 23.7%. One look at those numbers and it seems Bitcoin is starting off 2026 mimicking the Nasdaq again. The Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) is down around 1% at the time of this writing.
Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq turned negative in 2025 for the first time since …