Gold powering higher in 2026 is a bad sign for Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone.
McGlone argues that the precious metal’s exceptional performance signals a shift toward defensive positioning that historically precedes weaker returns for riskier and volatile assets such as crypto.
“Gold grabbing alpha in 2025 at the greatest pace since 1979 could signal market risk reversion in 2026. Never before has the store of value rallied at such magnitude,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
Alpha is a financial term used to describe an investment’s performance. Positive alpha means profit.
The comparison comes as Bitcoin dipped back below $90,000 on Thursday, erasing momentum from a 7% rally in the first week of the year. Traders pulled $486 million from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds on Wednesday, DefiLlama data shows.
It’s far from the first bearish call McGlone has made for Bitcoin. In December he predicted that the top crypto could sink another 90% and trade at $10,000 in 2026 due to mounting competition from other digital assets.
Bitcoin keeps lagging
Bitcoin is now trading 30% below its $126,000 record set back in October, despite a favourable macroeconomic picture that includes the Federal Reserve slashing interest rates to their lowest levels in three years.
The overall crypto market is still down over $1 trillion from its October highs.
Meanwhile, the price of gold is hovering near its all-time high at $4,430 an ounce. US stocks are also pushing near their historic records and expected to enjoy further gains in 2026.
“The current bull market in equities should continue through the end of the decade,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.
“We expect the economy to continue growing through the end of the decade without a recession,” he said.
To be sure, plenty of investors are still bullish on Bitcoin and ETFs backed by the digital asset.
“We can expect a growing emphasis on value capture from real usage, such as buybacks and fee sharing, alongside technical innovation,” Hassan Ahmed, Coinbase’s Singapore lead, told DL News.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin is down 2.3% over the past 24 hours, trading at $89,986.
Ethereum is down 3.9% past 24 hours at $3,108.
