Regardless of its long-standing popularity as “digital gold,” bitcoin has sharply diverged from conventional protected havens like gold and silver, however which may not be a foul factor for the digital asset’s future, in line with JPMorgan analysts.
Gold surged greater than 60% in 2025 on sustained central financial institution shopping for and flight-to-safety demand, whereas bitcoin has struggled into 2026, posting repeated month-to-month declines and underperforming main threat property. JPMorgan’s report suggests this widening hole displays bitcoin’s fading enchantment as a hedge towards market turmoil.
Digital property “got here underneath additional stress over the previous week as threat property and particularly tech got here underneath stress and as gold and silver, the opposite perceived hedges to a catastrophic state of affairs, noticed a pointy correction,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.
This selloff has additionally spilled over into spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), signaling broad-based damaging sentiment amongst institutional and retail buyers, in line with JPMorgan analysts. The bearish sentiment has additionally affected the stablecoin provide, which has contracted, the notice mentioned.
‘Catastrophic state of affairs’
Nonetheless, JPMorgan nonetheless sees a longer-term case for bitcoin.
The report mentioned gold has outperformed bitcoin since final October, however with sharply increased volatility, which makes bitcoin “much more engaging in comparison with gold.”
In idea, if bitcoin had been to match the current volatility seen in gold, the value of the digital asset must rise to close $266,000 to match the investments being made in gold, which, the analysts agree, is unlikely. What this low volatility does for bitcoin is that it highlights bitcoin’s future potential as a protected haven.
“This $266k volatility-adjusted comparability to gold is in our opinion an unrealistic goal for this yr, however it exhibits the upside potential over the long run as soon as damaging sentiment is reversed and as soon as bitcoin is once more perceived equally engaging to gold as a possible hedge to a catastrophic state of affairs,” the analysts wrote.
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