Bitcoin’s ratio to gold fell by 70%

Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas publicly responded to Deutsche Bank strategist Marion Labour’s statement that Bitcoin BTC $68,579.28 Mezo Wrapped BTC 3.75% Market capitalization $38.65 million VOL. 24 hours $1.65 billion «is no longer digital gold.» He defended the thesis that BTC remains an analog of gold in digital form, emphasizing that it is incorrect to assess the status of an asset based on the results of only one year. Balciunas reminded that in 2023−2024, Bitcoin grew by 450%, and it was called «digital gold» at the time, so the logic of abandoning this definition due to a weaker result in 2025 is questionable.

At the end of 2025, Bitcoin closed the year with a 6% loss, while gold showed a 65% gain — the highest annual result in more than a decade. BTC’s lag widened after the October collapse, and concerns about the four-year cycle added to the weakness in early 2026.

However, in the long run, Balchunas' argument looks convincing. Since 2012, Bitcoin has underperformed gold mostly only during bearish cycles — in 2014, 2018, and 2022, when gold outperformed it by 50−70%. In other years, BTC has shown double-digit and even triple-digit gains, significantly exceeding the dynamics of gold.

In recent months, Bitcoin’s weakness has been exacerbated by muted demand for spot BTC-ETFs in the United States. Total inflows turned negative in November 2025 and have not recovered as of February 2026. For comparison, gold ETFs dropped to zero in December, but demand later recovered and generated inflows of $ 10 billion.

Based on the BTC/gold ratio, the current pullback may be approaching important support. It peaked in late 2024 at 40 ounces of gold, but after the fall in October, the structure broke down and the ratio dropped to 13 — almost 70% below its peak. In 2022, a similar pullback stopped at the 9 level, which analysts call key support for a possible reversal. This means that despite the weakness of recent months, the discussion about Bitcoin’s status as «digital gold» remains open.