Bitcoin Sinks, Gold Slips, And The Safe-Haven Story Gets Harder To Sell

Bitcoin (BTC) and gold are trailing every major asset class in 2026, testing their safe-haven role as investors move back into stocks.

Key Points:

Bitcoin Gold Losses

Market analyst Charlie Bilello said Bitcoin has fallen 27% year to date, while gold is down 3%, making them the only major assets in negative territory this year. The pairing stands out because, based on Bilello’s data going back to 2011, Bitcoin and gold have never ended a calendar year as the two weakest major asset classes.

The move has come while other markets have advanced. Bilello’s figures showed the S&P 500 up about 9%, small-cap stocks higher by 19%, value stocks ahead by 15%, and emerging market equities outperforming expectations.

That contrast has made the selloff harder to explain.

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Tech Rotation

Bilello pointed to a broad capital rotation rather than a simple rejection of safe-haven assets. He said technology has outperformed the S&P 500 by 28% from the March lows, the largest such move on record and bigger than the 1999-2000 dot-com surge.

Technology now makes up nearly 40% of the S&P 500, above the 35% peak reached during the dot-com bubble.

In that setting, investors have favored companies with earnings momentum over assets that offer little or no yield.

Bitcoin was trading above $66,000 at the time of writing after briefly touching $67,000 for the first time in two weeks. The rebound followed reports that the United States and Iran were preparing to sign a peace deal in Switzerland later this week, a development that lifted risk appetite across markets.

Gold traded near $4,300 per troy ounce, within a weekly range of $4,025 to $4,340. Its 3% year-to-date decline is modest compared with Bitcoin’s drop, but it still marks a reversal for an asset that spent much of the past two years near records.

Gold rose 63.7% in 2025 and 26.7% in 2024, while Bitcoin gained 121% in 2024. That history makes their shared 2026 slump unusual, especially as both assets remain tied to protection against uncertainty and monetary debasement.

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