Its sharp pullback from the record level it recently saw has erased the gains it achieved since the beginning of the year, and aggressive price forecasts for 2026 are being questioned again.
However, according to experts, there is another question that is at least as important as the price: What role does Bitcoin really play in portfolios, and when will it start to behave like a stable 'store of value'?
Nate Geraci, President of NovaDius Wealth Management, stated in an evaluation on CNBC's 'ETF Edge' podcast, 'It still has to prove itself as a digital store of value with performance spread over a longer period.'
For years, Bitcoin has often been described as “digital gold.” This analogy is particularly appealing to institutional and individual investors; as gold is seen as a safe haven that protects portfolios during periods of sharp sell-offs in stocks and other risky assets, moving with low correlation to those assets. However, for Bitcoin, behaving like a risky asset during stock sell-offs is the most significant factor undermining this “digital gold” narrative.
Comments highlighting that Bitcoin has not been able to provide a clear answer to this digital gold question following two separate periods of volatility in 2025 have come to the forefront. Geraci stated, “The track record so far has been mixed.”
Geraci highlighted Bitcoin's strong performance during the stock sell-off period known as the “tariff tantrum,” which occurred after President Donald Trump announced comprehensive global tariffs in April of this year. He mentioned that Bitcoin's ability to perform well while decoupling from stocks attracted the attention of many investors.
However, more recently, with the weakness in technology stocks pulling the market down, he noted that most cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, were sold off sharply along with the stock market. Geraci specifically pointed out that Bitcoin lost much more value than the stock market in the recent wave. “The jury is still out,” he said, expressing the need for a longer data set to clarify Bitcoin's role.
In the long term, Geraci maintains the view that Bitcoin will evolve into a behavior pattern that increasingly resembles physical gold. On the other hand, he thinks today's movements are still “too young and volatile”: “Bitcoin is actually like an asset that is 15-16 years old. It needs time to prove itself as a digital store of value,” he said. In contrast, he emphasized that gold has a history of thousands of years and a proven reputation. In a follow-up email sent to CNBC, he stated, “The story of Bitcoin is still in its early chapters.”
Geraci emphasized the importance of maintaining perspective during short-term fluctuations, reminding that Bitcoin has pulled back over 25% from its record level in October, with the loss from peak to trough reaching approximately 35%. Nevertheless, he noted that since January 2024, following the SEC approval for spot Bitcoin ETFs, the price of Bitcoin has still more than doubled.
While billions of dollars have flowed out of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the last month, it is reported that there has been a net inflow of approximately 22 billion dollars since the beginning of the year. Geraci notes that the wave of selling in technology stocks and the broader market's flight from risk were the primary triggers at the beginning of the recent collapse, but that the high leverage levels in the crypto market played a significant role in deepening the move: “I think there was a lot of leverage that needed to be cleared in this category. What we are seeing right now is that,” he added.
Beyond Bitcoin, Geraci believes that crypto index ETFs could emerge to allow investors to enter the crypto asset class in a more diversified manner. These products aim to spread risk by investing in a basket of digital assets rather than being tied to a single coin.
Stay tuned for new developments
