Bitcoin Is ‘Anti-Gold’ as War, Inflation Fuel Rally

The ‘Anti-Gold’ Argument

Schiff, the Euro Pacific Asset Management chief executive and longtime bitcoin critic, has spent the past week arguing that bitcoin is not merely failing to track gold’s rally, it is moving in the opposite direction. He recently wrote on X:

Bitcoin is finally the uncorrelated asset you’ve hoped it would be. Even when risk-on and risk-off assets rise, Bitcoin falls.

In that same post, Schiff laid out the numbers driving his argument, stating that gold is up 9% on the year, silver 11%, the Nasdaq 13%, the Russell 2000 14%, while bitcoin sat down 11% over the same stretch. The gap has widened at other points this year to as much as 20 percentage points by Schiff’s tally, a divergence he treats as proof that bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative was never grounded in how the asset actually trades.

Gold and Silver’s War-Driven Rally

Schiff ties gold and silver’s strength directly to geopolitical risk. Writing on SchiffGold’s Friday Gold Wrap, Schiff and his team argued that gold and silver likely put in a near-term bottom even as broader equity indexes wobbled, with an active war and a spike in oil prices feeding renewed inflation pressure and driving investors toward traditional safe havens.

Gold traded around $4,378 an ounce as of August 10, up roughly 0.8% on the day and continuing to hold levels well above where it started the year. Silver has been even stronger, having set a nominal all-time high of $121.67 in January and remaining near record territory since. Schiff argues that oil-driven inflation, rising Treasury yields following bond selloffs, and shifting public messaging around the ongoing conflict are the real forces behind the metals’ strength, not any renewed faith in fiat currency stability.

Bitcoin, by contrast, slid below $64,000 yesterday and has remained there since, extending a stretch of underperformance that has left it lagging every other major asset class Schiff tracks, including equities, which he has separately warned could tip into a deeper bear market if the conflict drags on.

A Recurring Feud With Bitcoin

This is not the first time Schiff has pressed the anti-correlation case given that Bitcoin.com News reported in July that Schiff argued bitcoin’s gold correlation “was never real,” pointing to the asset’s failure to rally alongside gold during 2025’s precious-metals surge as evidence the relationship traders assumed existed simply was not there.

Schiff has also warned that Strategy, the corporate bitcoin treasury company led by Michael Saylor, could face “much greater” losses given its roughly 840,000 BTC position, a warning that has taken on more weight as Strategy has begun selling coins at a loss this year.

Bitcoin supporters have pushed back on Schiff’s repeated attacks, arguing that short-term price divergence during a single risk-off stretch does not settle a multi-year debate about bitcoin’s role as a store of value, and that gold’s own rallies during past crises have not stopped it from posting sharp drawdowns of its own.