Bitcoin and gold have started trading much more alike over the past six months, according to an Unchained market analysis, while bitcoin’s relationship with the Nasdaq-100 has weakened over the same stretch. That shift challenges a portfolio approach that treated bitcoin and gold as two separate forms of protection against the same macro concern.
On Thursday morning, producer prices stayed hot. Gold, the Nasdaq-100 and bitcoin each fell more than 1%, the article said. The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.37%, its highest close since the U.S. Treasury resumed selling the bond in 2006.
In that kind of session, gold is typically expected to behave differently from risk assets. Investors hold it because it is supposed to retain support when other parts of the market do not. Through this cycle, investors have owned bitcoin and gold as separate insurance policies against the same risk: governments keep borrowing and paper money keeps losing value. If the two assets respond differently, a portfolio can still hold up even if one hedge fails.
That logic depends on bitcoin and gold diverging. Unchained said they have done the opposite in the past six months.
Correlation with gold rises while Nasdaq link fades
To test the change, Unchained said it pulled daily prices for bitcoin, gold and the Nasdaq-100 back to 2019 and measured how closely each pair moved on days when both markets were open.
The result: bitcoin’s four-month correlation with gold now stands at 0.56, versus about 0.22 in March. Its correlation with the Nasdaq-100 moved the other way over the same period, falling from 0.54 to 0.36. Unchained said that was the highest reading since its dataset begins in 2019. The previous peak was recorded in November 2020.
The article also pointed to a recent counterexample. As recently as January, gold rose while bitcoin fell during turmoil in Japan’s bond market. Even so, the latest data shows the two assets have become much more closely aligned in recent months.
The correlation chart in the report uses rolling 90-session windows, roughly four months, based on daily returns at the New York close. Gold is measured through GLD. The sample period shown runs from January 2024 to Sept. 10, 2026. The source is listed as Unchained analysis of Coinbase and Yahoo Finance data.
Published readings this month start at 0.50
Unchained wrote that published readings this month start at 0.50, and Bitwise has described the current level as the highest in nearly six years. The article also noted that many such figures do not specify whether they are built from daily returns or price levels, what window they use, or which gold contract they reference. Each of those choices can change the answer.
The rest of the piece is behind a subscription prompt. The article, titled "Bitcoin and Gold Are Now the Same Trade. Which One Is Worth Owning?", first appeared on Unchained.
