Bitcoin is now trading at less than half of its all-time high, even as the S&P 500, QQQ, and gold test fresh records. That gap has drawn attention across the market. In comments cited by the report, VanEck advisor Gabor Gurbacs tied the divergence to changes in crypto market culture and to weakening capital absorption inside the ecosystem.
From cypherpunk roots to attention-driven speculation
Gurbacs contrasted today’s market with the crypto community that existed before 2017. In his view, the earlier period was shaped by cypherpunk values, the idea of sound money, and participation from experienced capital market professionals. He argued that much of the sector is now influenced by actors chasing rapid attention instead of building durable value.
He also said he would have preferred real-world asset tokenization to rise before the 2017 ICO wave took over the market narrative. The article defines real-world asset tokenization as putting traditional assets such as bonds, funds, and real estate into digital token form on a blockchain.
Institutional demand remains, but the balance has weakened
According to Gurbacs, the main contradiction in the current cycle is that Bitcoin has stopped moving in sync with traditional safe havens and technology stocks. Institutional capital is still entering crypto, he said, yet the scale of speculative noise is making it harder for long-term value to assert itself.
The report adds a supply-side signal. A model that tracks the balance between institutional absorption and distribution from early investors showed that last week marked the weakest net capital inflow of the entire cycle. Since the peak in October 2025, the cumulative balance has fallen to minus 154,169 BTC.
Relative weakness stands out against other major assets
The comparison is stark: Bitcoin sits below half of its record high, while the S&P 500, QQQ, and gold are testing new highs. Those figures point to underperformance against external markets and to a growing internal imbalance in crypto capital flows.
Gurbacs still kept a constructive long-term view. He said the weakness does not come from Bitcoin’s technology, but from the short-term speculative culture built around it. The article also notes that Tether is the largest stablecoin issuer in the crypto market, and that Gurbacs’s criticism has resonated with industry participants trying to explain why Bitcoin has lagged other major asset classes despite rising institutional interest.