Bitcoin is more like digital gold than a so-called "risk-on" asset, according to Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's digital assets lead. For years, bitcoin's ability to behave in different ways at different times has stumped investors . They believed the idea that it might be a hedge against inflation only to see the cryptocurrency tumble with stocks in 2022 amid sky high inflation and rate hikes – and then rally again as signs of cooling began to show.
"Bitcoin has one fundamental macro variable where it is highly correlated with equities: it is massively short real interest rates" — or the difference between nominal rates and inflation indicators — "and it is long inflation expectations," he said. "Real interest rates drove every asset under the sun between 2020 and early 2023," he added.