Bitcoin’s (CRYPTO: BTC) 90-day correlation with gold has hit an all-time high, matching two prior spikes that each preceded massive Bitcoin rallies of 172% and 350%.

What the Bitcoin-Gold Correlation Is Saying?

According to The Block, Bitcoin’s 30-day metric reached a yearly high of 0.8, meaning the two assets are moving together more closely than at any point on record. 

That matters because the same pattern has appeared twice before and both times preceded massive Bitcoin rallies.

In Q4 2020 the correlation spiked to 0.6 before falling, and Bitcoin gained 172% in the months that followed. 

In Q4 2022 it climbed from near zero to 0.5, and Bitcoin rallied nearly 350% over the next 14 months. Both times the real bull market started when Bitcoin decorrelated from gold after the spike, not during it.

The institutional flow data reinforces the debasement trade narrative behind the correlation.

Both Bitcoin and gold ETFs sit in the top 10 by inflows, with Bitcoin ETFs drawing nearly $1 billion last week. BlackRock’s IBIT (NASDAQ:IBIT) leads all individual products with $1.2 billion in year-to-date inflows.

What the Fear and Greed Index Shows

The Block noted that the Fear and Greed Index sits at 68, firmly in greed territory, after touching a low of 5 earlier this year in extreme fear. 

The move from 5 to 68 ranks as the fourth-largest weekly swing on record, with the index rising more than 10 points per day between August 17 and 21.

Despite the sharp sentiment shift, the index has not broken any records for volatility this year. 

The 2026 range of 69 points ranks sixth out of the past nine years, well below 2019’s record range of 90 points, suggesting there is still significant room for sentiment to expand if this is genuinely the start of a bull market.

What Benjamin Cowen Says About Gold’s Next Move?

Crypto analyst Benjamin Cowen argued in an update on Tuesday that gold is in a normal mid-cycle pullback, not a secular top, noting that 30% drawdowns have appeared in prior gold bull markets without ending the trend. 

His base case follows the 1974 playbook: gold drops, rallies, pulls back into September or October for a higher low, then hits new all-time highs by year end. 

He sees 2026 tracking that pattern closely, with the summer low arriving right on schedule for a midterm year.

The short-term headwind is a brief dollar resurgence from potential rate hikes, which he expects to keep gold soft for two to four weeks before the next leg higher. 

His invalidation is mid-2027, by which point gold should be printing new all-time highs or the bull market thesis needs revisiting.

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