Crypto Long and Short: Why Are Gold and Bitcoin in the Same Portfolio?

Note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CoinDesk, Inc., CoinDesk Indices, or its owners and affiliates.

...and if you're looking for Bitcoin meets Broadway: Crypto takes the stage in New York City. "Bad Boy Bitcoin," a comedy by Ben Schiller, runs Oct. 15-25 at the Chain Theatre. The show revolves around a family in debt, a coder who wants to build a better world, and a coin meme. Learn more.

Gold trading near $4,200 an ounce alongside Bitcoin BTC at $83,212.45 holding around $84,000 has revived a familiar debate: Should investors hold gold or the "digital gold" alternative?

For 5,000 years, gold has demonstrated its value as a reserve asset. Bitcoin's 17-year history provides much less empirical evidence. But the supply of both assets cannot be developed by the central bank or financial policymakers. Therefore, their common scarcity becomes more important in a world full of debt.

In the United States alone, the federal debt has reached more than $39 trillion. The United States now spends nearly a trillion dollars a year servicing its existing debt, and the outlook for many developed countries is more challenging. Currencies often act as a relief for financial worries. For example, the US dollar has lost almost 40% of its purchasing power over the past two decades.

Against this backdrop, it is important to understand where supply-constrained assets fit into long-term diversified portfolios. A 2025 study in Resources Policy, using multifractal cross-correlation analysis across six asset classes – developed and emerging stocks, bonds, commodities, energy and digital currencies – found that “neither gold nor bitcoin can be classified as a hedge or safe haven for financial markets” under rigorous testing.

It's a finding about the market's bearish behavior — whether each asset moves reliably against stocks and bonds when the markets fall. It says nothing about whether each has value relative to a currency that is slowly but steadily depreciating against them. Investors and allocators buying gold or bitcoin often don't use them as buffers. They make a pessimistic condition: that the asset provides diversification benefits independent of each government's promise to pay.

In this condition, gold and bitcoin are not competing with each other - they are at different points of the same path. Gold already has the custodial, legal and reserve authority infrastructure that allows central banks today to operate on the devaluation thesis and currency-reserve diversification. Bitcoin hasn't done that yet - at least not completely.

Gold lead reflects decades of plumbing, not a stronger claim for this thesis. Bitcoin does not have the same influence in terms of knowledge. It is earlier on the same curve, rather than a different curve, and often appeals to a younger generation of investors.

Central banks recorded a record purchase of 289 tons of gold in the second quarter of 2026, after 244 metric tons of gold in the second quarter of 2026. First, according to data from an industry body funded by mining interests. Even though the pace of purchases is independently verified elsewhere and is the clearest signal of where and why managers are putting cash reserves, it is valuable. Bitcoin is bought into the same thesis through a newer cover: cash ETFs, which solve the custody problem, but don't solve the government reserve position that central banks require.

None of this requires choosing a side. Central banks are buying gold from existing infrastructure. Institutions are buying Bitcoin on infrastructure that is still being built - same logic of humiliation, two different stages. The financial media is already starting to call it one deal, not two competing deals, as coverage of the "contempt trade" ramps up to 2026. The real question for 2027 is not which asset will win. It shows how much of each diversifier belongs to a set that is designed to reduce purchasing power. Volatility is very different between gold and Bitcoin, and we believe solutions that help investors measure these two anti-debasement assets add value to portfolio building efforts.

This week's headlines saw institutional crypto expanding through bank trading, regulated custody and access to national ETFs, while European regulators moved to force unauthorized stablecoins off trading platforms.

When it goes to a loan factory, the chip is returned

Active loans fell 22% to $311 million on October 2nd and have remained flat since then, while CHIPs have declined. Up ~35% since October 1st to ~5.8 cents (still ~48% below their April peak). The catalyst is GLX, a loan factory model (origination, sale of current loans to institutions, recapitalization), which can restore non-performing loans by recycling capital into new, much larger off-balance sheet loans.

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