Bitcoin's Geopolitical "Resiliency" & Factors Backing "Digital Gold" Thesis

0:00And it's time now for our 360 round to discuss crypto Bitcoin down more than 20% in 2026 hit a new 52 week low last month Joining us to discuss some of this action today Andy bear managing director and the asset management at GSR and Symmir Kerbaj the CIO over at hashtags. Thanks for both being with us You I'm just taking a look at at Bitcoin prices right now We are more than 2% higher, but still in that you know 68 69,000 range that we were able to break out of and now find ourselves back in there You it's been such a ride watching Bitcoin lately. We were below 65,000. We got ourselves back up above 70 now We're kind of back in that range. You know Symmir. Let me start with you here. Does this kind of volatility reinforce the idea that Bitcoin is becoming a macro asset that reacts to global events? Marley Andy is great to see you Yeah, so Bitcoin is a global asset and what we've been seeing especially in the last few weeks or so is a lot of volatility crypto prices

1:02We expect especially when missiles fly right with spectasy volatility and risk asset and and this coin is not different from that So I think Bitcoin has been trading very Close to in general like back stocks anticipating the move since the market is 24 7 and doesn't close and we expect to see You know more volatility in coming days as you know the outcomes up this current conflict are still unknown And Andy Symmir just made a good point that we see the action in Bitcoin in advance of the markets because it trades 24 7 But we oftentimes see the sell-off happen because of its 24 7 tradeoff and at times It is seemingly absorbed some of the shock before the traditional markets have opened What are your thoughts about that dynamic and if we'll see that become more the norm or more common as we've seen this up Take it in institutional participation and crypto It looks like we're going to lose the last secret thing which is weekends right That you know, you'll have these macro assets that are trading in good markets with good liquidity and weekends and and overnight in such a way that as you

2:04Say can absorb shocks But even still even Think about the last month or the last kind of five weeks You know holding a range between 60 263,000 and 70,000 for Bitcoin is actually kind of steady right and Even if it did absorb some of those shocks over the weekends it usually has kind of pulsed back The market is still kind of trying to absorb a lot of the liquidity events that happened Last fall and in the beginning of February of this year And you know have been pretty stable since then with ether around In Bitcoin in the high 60s. So I like the resilience actually that the market is showing at this point unlike gold and oil Which are really trading at premiums right now crypto is kind of trading at a support level. So Yes, I think it's done a good job of Absorbing and is just looking for a reason to go higher at this point And it's similar you know, I want to talk to you about this digital gold narrative

3:06I spent a lot of the last year calling Bitcoin and crypto the Bitcoin particularly the digital gold and In the sell-off we saw at the beginning of the year that stopped we we aren't saying that as much But it's it's coming back into the conversation now What are your thoughts on if this tension that we're seeing in the geopolitical risks in the Middle East? Is that reinforcing this narrative of digital gold or is it challenging the narrative of it being a digital gold? Yeah, so this narrative of Bitcoin being a digital gold is it can be very confusing Especially if you expect Bitcoin to trade very close with gold and in fact if you look at the correlations Bitcoin has been trading polar to an as they point hundred than with gold. So showing higher correlations with tax stocks than To gold and I think this is part of the the whole investment thesis on Bitcoin So the thesis that we have on Bitcoin is that it is an emerging digital store of value So it has a lot of characteristics of a good store of value But it's still not being adopted

4:07Especially from from the central bank standpoint. It's not being adopted at the store of value So Bitcoin right now is not only investment policy of central banks That's why when central banks start buying gold and gold starts marking those higher prices Bitcoin is not reacting to it because It's not the same buyer So we expect to see this behavior of Bitcoin You know behaving both on the short-term as as a risk asset and on the long-term as a reserve asset So it's a very interesting pace is a very interesting asset to to look at especially When the demand for non-solvering store of value is growing exponentially like it like we've seen the last few months And Andy you've mentioned that this next Bitcoin rally could look different than we've seen in the past I know there's been a lot of conversation about the clarity act and this regulation coming to pass Is that going to be the catalyst we need to see that move to the upside? Yeah, I think so you know in the second and third quarter of 2025 We had a really tremendous rally that had good breadth and the breadth was based on

5:11The fact that we were expecting the genius act to be passed which it did on July 18th So you have a tremendous rally that was more led by ether than then Bitcoin And it brought the rest of the market into a very Excited state then we had our drawdown in the fourth quarter So now there is enough going on with the slow money with integration of financial markets That you would be pretty surprised to see a Bitcoin only rally here You know, even if you just look at the top three assets Bitcoin and the top two layer one blockchains Ethereum and Solana right there you kind of kind of have a package of what you could expect to react To the next time that there's a rally and the rally get some purchase Well, we appreciate you both being with us to highlight bitcoin and crypto prices and debare managing director of asset management at gsr and simul Carbage cio of hashtags