Bitcoin Is 'Not Exactly Gold' but That's a Good Thing, Bitwise Exec Says

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is occasionally passed off as “digital gold,” but Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan says that does not tell the full story.

Hougan sees Bitcoin correlating with gold only in specific regimes, while it behaves as an entirely different asset the rest of the time.

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Hougan told the Forward Guidance podcast on Wednesday that Bitcoin does not move for just one reason at a time even as most investors make the mistake of viewing it through a single lens at all times.

From October to June, he argued, the dominant driver was the crypto deleveraging cycle rather than macro forces. 

What changed recently is that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventions in the bond market pushed the macro factor back to the forefront, overwhelming everything else. 

The result is Bitcoin’s correlation with gold hitting its highest level in years, mirroring what happened during the COVID stimulus package when macro forces similarly dominated all other drivers.

“When you need it to act as a deep debasement hedge, Bitcoin in fact does that,” Hougan said. “It is in fact digital gold, but it’s not exactly gold,” he added.

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