Bitcoin and gold face headwinds amid strengthening dollar

Bitcoin decoupled with the stock market and saw its correlation with gold rise to a level not seen since last year.

Bitcoin (BTC) and gold are no longer investors’ primary choices as inflation hedges amid the strengthening United States dollars. The current turmoil in financial markets added to the geopolitical tensions has run havoc on the majority of the assets that investors prefer to invest in during times of financial crisis.

Bitcoin has lost nearly 70% of its market cap since the market top last year while gold, which strengthened its position in the first quarter of the year despite the Russia-Ukraine crisis, is currently down by 10% year-to-date.

The negative market condition has forced BTC to shed its correlation with tech stocks while at the same time, the top cryptocurrency’s correlation with the precious metal has reached levels not seen in over a year.

The correlation between Bitcoin and gold over the past year has largely fluctuated between -0.2 and positive 0.2. However, the correlation between the two assets reached 0.3 last week, the highest in one year.

*Bitcoin’s correlation with gold Source: Kaiko Research*

A correlation reading of 0.3 is considered slightly positive while a value of 0.7 is regarded as a strong correlation. Thus, even though the BTC/gold correlation has reached a yearly high, it still has not reached a significant level where the price momentums mimic each other.

Apart from Bitcoin and gold, United States Treasury bonds and other stocks have also faced a similar fate. Experts believe the strengthening dollar added to the ongoing market conditions has forced investors to look beyond safe haven assets.

Karim Dandashy, portfolio manager at digital assets investment platform StableHouse, told Cointelegraph:

“Obviously, it’s not been a great year for Bitcoin. Nor has it for traditional risk-off assets like gold and U.S. [Treasury bonds]. The charts say it all, the dollar has been the winner. This is ironic as investors would seek refuge in yield or growth assets, but the risk of recession and attempted QT have driven investors to hoard dollars.”

Bitcoin might be struggling to keep up with the inflation hedge narrative, however, it is important to note that BTC is still a nascent asset class when compared to others. The top cryptocurrency is still among the best-performing assets over the past five years.