Bitcoin Now Behaving More Like Stocks Than Gold Amid Escalating Middle East Conflict
War drums beat—and Bitcoin dances to Wall Street''s tune, not gold''s safe-haven shuffle. The crypto giant''s price action mirrors equities as geopolitical tensions spike, leaving its ''digital gold'' narrative tarnished.
Here''s the twist: When missiles fly, Bitcoin isn''t hiding in the vault—it''s riding the NASDAQ rollercoaster. The Middle East crisis proves what cynics knew all along: crypto''s ''hedge'' was just marketing fluff for hedge funds.
Gold bugs smirk while crypto bros cope. Turns out Satoshi''s invention behaves exactly like every other risk asset when bullets start flying—because nothing unites markets like good old-fashioned panic. (Except maybe the Fed''s printer, but that''s another story.)
Gold prices have surged in 2025. Source: TradingView
Will Bitcoin follow suit?
Comparatively, Bitcoin (BTC $107,051) has gained just 13% year-to-date. It is also flirting with its all-time high, trading 5.3% below the $111,800 peak it reached on May 22.
However, IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin still trades more as a risk asset akin to US equities rather than as a safe haven like gold.
“In that sense, with US equity futures rebounding strongly today from Friday’s sell-off, there is room for Bitcoin to MOVE higher and play some catch-up to US equity futures.”
He added that, providing Bitcoin holds above support at $95,000 to $100,000, “I expect a retest of the $112,000 record high before a move toward the $116,000 and $120,000 region.”
Short-term gains for Oil and Gold
Apollo crypto analyst Henrik Andersson echoed the sentiment, telling Cointelegraph that “we are seeing a recovery in equity futures as well as in Bitcoin after an initial sell-off on Friday related to the news out of the Middle East.”
However, he added that in the short term, “oil and gold are likely to continue to move in the opposite direction to equities and Bitcoin.”
LVRG Research director Nick Ruck was of a similar opinion. Bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative is “slowly fading” as it struggles to mirror gold’s rally, “with traders instead focusing on short-term volatility and liquidity conditions, making BTC more correlated to risk assets than safe havens,” he told Cointelegraph.
Looking ahead to Fed meeting
“If risk sentiment shifts and investors look for alternative stores of value, Bitcoin could see renewed momentum in the coming weeks if this week’s Fed meeting comes in as expected for investors,” said Eugene Cheung, chief commercial officer at digital asset platform OSL.
Markets are looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and rate decision on Wednesday, but futures markets still predict no change in rates at the coming meeting, with a 96.7% probability of them remaining at 4.25-4.50%.
