[MUMBAI] Bitcoin advanced to the highest level since early March, fueling optimism that the biggest digital token is finally breaking free of a longstanding tendency to move in tandem with US tech stocks.
After briefly succumbing to the risk-asset sell-off that followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on geopolitical allies and rivals alike, Bitcoin has rallied almost 20 per cent from an Apr 7 low. In doing so, it has begun trading more akin to gold, the standout asset in markets roiled by tariff uncertainty.
The decoupling from US assets – in large part driven by a slumping US dollar – offers some relief for crypto bulls after Trump’s first three months in power failed to ignite the rally many had expected. Even after April’s gains, Bitcoin trades well below where it was when Trump returned to the White House.
Trump’s attacks in the past week on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, whom he blames for being too slow to cut interest rates, have further unnerved investors and fuelled the narrative that the era of US “exceptionalism” that drove a roaring stock market is over.
“One of the possible ramifications of the US decoupling is a revisit to the long-term Bitcoin bull case as a store of value,” said Augustine Fan, a partner at crypto trading platform SignalPlus. “We’ve been critiquing Bitcoin as a leveraged Nasdaq proxy over the past year, but it has finally started to show some signs of decoupling.”
Bitcoin gained as much as 1.7 per cent and traded around US$88,400 as of 6.30 am in New York on Tuesday (Apr 22). The US dollar spot index recovered slightly after falling to its lowest since late 2023 on Monday, while gold surged past US$3,500 an ounce for the first time. The Nasdaq 100 index was poised for a rebound after Monday’s rout.
“If Bitcoin continues to trade more like gold than a tech stock, the decoupling narrative will gather momentum,” said Richard Galvin, co-founder of Sydney-based crypto hedge fund DACM.
In another sign of a shift in sentiment, US-listed Bitcoin ETFs took in a combined US$381 million on Monday, the biggest influx since Jan 30. A sustained move above US$88,800 for Bitcoin could propel futher gains to the US$92,000-US$94,000 range, according to Riya Sehgal, a research analyst at Delta Exchange. BLOOMBERG
