Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has taken a slight dig at gold in a recent post on X. “Not against gold, but it’s not a limited supply asset,” he posted. The statement was enough to deepen the animosity between the precious meta faithfuls and the crypto community.
CZ made it clear why he still bets on Bitcoin: it’s capped, and gold isn’t. He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. This came as gold’s outstanding rally seemingly came to a halt. On Friday, gold slid 0.4% to $3,228 per ounce, putting it on the path of a 2.6% weekly loss. This was after the precious metal hit a record high of $3,500.05 on April 22. But by last Thursday, it dropped to the lowest level since April 14. US gold futures still closed up 0.6% at $3,243.30, though that didn’t reverse the trend.
Gold’s struggle became evident after the US and China both toned down trade war talks. China’s commerce ministry said the US had shown interest in working things out on tariffs, and that Beijing was open to discussion. The easing tension hurt demand for safe assets. The fear that had driven gold higher was fading. Senior market strategist at RJO Futures, Daniel Pavilonis said, “Gold looks like $3,500 may be a top for a little while,” especially if more trade deals start showing up and risk appetite comes back. He mentioned that a panic drop usually means gold cools down. That’s what’s happening now.
CZ backs Bitcoin as it inches closer to gold
While gold suffered a decline, Bitcoin was making impressive moves. The asset is still up less than 1% for the year, but that’s better than the S&P 500, which has dropped over 6%. After hitting its 2025 low on April 8, Bitcoin bounced back around 20%. It didn’t beat gold’s 26% rise this year, but it came close. That rebound mattered for people watching the fight between old money and new.
Bitcoin’s top hater Peter Schiff didn’t stay quiet either. He took to X and said, “It should be clear from the recent price action that claims that Bitcoin has decoupled from the NASDAQ and now trades more like gold is false.” He told people worried about inflation to buy gold. “If you want to bet on the NASDAQ,” said Schiff, “just buy tech stocks.”
Schiff added the market would get hit by falling Treasury prices and a weaker dollar, which would drive up borrowing costs and debt. The tie between Bitcoin and gold has changed a lot. Between 2020 and 2024, they usually moved together. But by the end of March this year, that pattern broke. A CNBC report showed the 25-week rolling correlation between the two dropped to -0.42. It is the lowest since early 2020. The April rebound pushed the number back to -0.28, but it still means they are not closely tied. A number like -0.42 means when gold goes up 1%, Bitcoin drops 0.42%. That’s a big gap for two assets people used to treat the same.
Even though April looked good for both, their relationship was shaky. The numbers show that Bitcoin and gold aren’t moving in sync. But some believe they might again. That’s where Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, comes in. In a March note, he wrote that Bitcoin isn’t gold. It acts more like tech. “Investors might benefit from viewing Bitcoin as both an additional big tech stock and as a hedge against traditional finance,” Geoff said.