Why a selloff in gold and silver is dragging bitcoin down

The ongoing artificial intelligence stock frenzy has pulled in capital from across the market, from traditional metals, considered the safest assets, to crypto, considered the riskiest.

Gold dropped below $4,000 for the first time since November earlier this week, silver has lost more than half its value from its high, and bitcoin has slipped to nearly $58,000.

The three selloffs are not a coincidence. For much of the past two years, they have been, to a large degree, the same trade, and now the same forces are unwinding it.

That trade even has a name, the “debasement” trade. It is the bet that heavy government spending and rising national debt will slowly erode the value of paper money, which pushes investors toward scarce assets that no government can print more of.

Gold and silver are the oldest versions of that bet, while bitcoin, with a supply capped at 21 million coins, got marketed as the digital version. Through 2025, as the dollar looked vulnerable, money poured into all three, and they were treated as one basket.