Bitcoin Nears $80K but 'Turning Point' in Sight, Suggests Analyst

Down more than 5% since President Trump's tariff announcement on Wednesday evening sent markets plunging, bitcoin (BTC) once again is disappointing bulls who have touted its store-of-value properties or potential as a non-correlated safe haven to risk assets like stocks. Or not. "This moment feels like a turning point," said Joel Kruger, LMAX Group market strategist. "We see market participants increasingly drawn to [BTC's] appeal as a store-of-value asset and a compelling diversification tool amid the uncertainty." Kruger noted that while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have each tumbled to new 2025 lows, bitcoin for the moment is holding well above its year-to-date bottom of $75,000 — what technicians like to call "higher lows." But Javier Rodriguez Alarcon, chief commercial officer at crypto exchange XBTO, believes otherwise. “Despite talk that bitcoin could act as a hedge against dollar-centric volatility, in practice we’re still seeing a strong correlation between digital assets and broader risk markets in moments of uncertainty,” the ex-Goldman Sachs executive said in an email. Gold still the preferred safe haven at JPMorgan "Bitcoin's volatility and correlation with equities raises questions over its 'digital gold' narrative," said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and team at JPMorgan yesterday. "We see gold continuing to rise as the major beneficiary of the debasement trade," they added. Even with bitcoin's recent pullback, the price is still above the bank's estimated average cost of production of $62,000, a metric which has acted as a lower boundary in the past, wrote Panigirtzoglou. Gold today is lower by just 1.25% to $3,126 per ounce and within close sight of its record high of around $3,200.