Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) surged 22% in August while the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) barely moved 5% and its correlation with gold hit a six-year high, fueling a debate whether BTC is breaking away from its traditional risk-asset behavior.

Why Bitcoin Correlations Shift

Prominent key opinion leader Scott Melker pushed back on the idea that Bitcoin needs to permanently track either equities or gold.

He argued on Friday that Bitcoin’s changing correlations show it remains largely uncorrelated over longer periods, potentially helping portfolio diversification.

Bitcoin’s correlation with gold has risen sharply as its link with stocks has weakened.

Melker cautioned that these shifts may not last. Bitcoin can move with stocks at times and gold at others without being tied to either over the long term.

Bitcoin’s rally came as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $731 million in daily inflows, the strongest since January.

The crypto king is nearing its 50-week moving average.

Melker said a break above $82,800 would mark a higher high and strengthen the bullish structure.

Wall Street Moves On-Chain

Offchain co-founder Steven Goldfeder pointed to Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) as an example of traditional finance adopting blockchain infrastructure.

Robinhood Chain, built with Arbitrum technology, processes roughly 12 million to 15 million transactions daily and generates millions of dollars in fees, according to Goldfeder.

He expects other financial firms to follow as tokenized assets, 24/7 trading and near-instant settlement become more common.

Goldfeder sees privacy becoming critical as institutions move on chain.

Financial firms will likely favor systems that protect transaction details while keeping required information available to authorized parties.

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