Will tariffs be the catalyst for bitcoin’s decoupling?

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Another day, another bitcoin rally.

After making a run approaching its all-time high last night, bitcoin was back in the red this afternoon, hovering around $108,600 and trading 1.4% lower over the past 24 hours as of 2 p.m. ET.

Bitcoin’s latest move is similar to what it did three weeks ago, when the largest cryptocurrency notched a new all-time high just shy of $112,000. BTC went from around $103,000 to above $110,000 in roughly two days.

As Noelle Acheson pointed out in today’s Crypto is Macro Now newsletter, bitcoin’s late-May rally coincided with a surge in short liquidations. In other words, investors were buying up BTC to cover their leveraged short positions.

Short BTC liquidations lately are similarly high, so Acheson estimates that last night’s run up was likely driven by leverage covering vs. new spot investors. I’d have to agree.

That being said, bitcoin often trades like a Big Tech stock: It’s high volatility and, at least in recent months (dare I say years), has not been insulated from macroeconomic moves.

Bitcoin’s correlation to the Nasdaq Composite is currently 0.81, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The crypto’s correlation with gold has recently moved negative, now sitting at -0.07, per Yahoo Finance.

The “bitcoin is digital gold” narrative has certainly lost steam in recent years, with the cryptocurrency rising and falling along with risk appetites. Just look at what happened in April: BTC lost more than 11% the week after April 2 (Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day”). The S&P 500 shed 12%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 13%.

Before the HODLers come for me, yes, bitcoin bounced back stronger than stocks. Since April 2, BTC has gained around 29%. The S&P 500 is up 7%, and the Nasdaq Composite has gained just under 12%.

I still think bitcoin is going to trade on big macro news (interest rate decisions, inflation data, employment reports, etc.), but I’ll add that Big Tech companies are obviously more vulnerable to tariff policies, and we’ve seen that in the price action.

Apple is down more than 17% year to date. Alphabet has lost more than 5% since the start of 2025.

Bitcoin is up more than 16%.