Dave Portnoy, the outspoken founding father of Barstool Sports activities, posted a easy query on X final week that hit a nerve within the crypto world: “If the purpose of Bitcoin is to be unbiased of the U.S. Greenback and nonregulated, why does it principally commerce precisely just like the U.S. inventory market these days?”
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That one line summed up what a number of informal buyers have been questioning, particularly as Bitcoin and crypto shares took a dive following President Donald Trump’s new spherical of tariffs on Wednesday.
Bitcoin had been hovering close to $88,000 earlier than Trump’s announcement. Not lengthy after the tariff coverage was unveiled, it slipped beneath $83,000. It wasn’t alone. Shares tanked in after-hours buying and selling, with tech-heavy ETFs like Invesco QQQ (NASDAQ:QQQ) falling 4%.
Crypto-linked shares additionally adopted the identical pattern. MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) dropped 7%, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) fell 6%, and Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) misplaced 9%.
A lot for being “unbiased.”
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Loads of folks chimed in to reply Portnoy’s query. Some pointed to institutional involvement, others blamed feelings, and some leaned on technical evaluation.
“Bitcoin trades like a danger asset quick time period as a result of it’s essentially the most liquid, salable, 24/7 asset on Earth,” stated MicroStrategy Govt Chairman Michael Saylor. “In instances of panic, merchants promote what they’ll, not what they wish to.”
After which there’s plain logic. “When you wanted to pay hire what are you promoting first? Apple inventory or your crypto baggage?” one consumer wrote.
One other replied, “Growth. Whenever you understand large cash has already hijacked bitcoin and it is no completely different than the inventory market anymore.”
Others bought sarcastic: “Day 1 of the bear market: Portnoy discovers what correlation means.” And: “It was a forex earlier than it was hijacked and was a collectible.” Distinguished analyst Benjamin Cowen additionally piled on, saying, “How are you going to be your age and write one thing like that?”
Some customers defended Bitcoin’s authentic intent. “Merchants are the froth. Hodlers are the ground,” one stated. One other added, “Bitcoin is the best-performing asset over the past 15 years.”
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This newest Bitcoin drop didn’t come out of nowhere. Wall Road was already reeling from inflation knowledge and weak client sentiment. On Friday, a number of days earlier than “Liberation Day,” The Dow Jones Industrial Common fell over 700 points, the S&P 500 slid 2%, and the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) misplaced almost 3%.
Then got here Trump’s tariff announcement, renewing commerce warfare fears. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast now exhibits a 2.8% GDP decline for Q1, up from -3.7% on April 1.
Whereas Bitcoin has proven some resilience in comparison with shares, it is nonetheless transferring in the identical path when concern hits.
Some nonetheless imagine in one among Bitcoin’s authentic guarantees: a decentralized hedge against economic chaos. However for now, most agree that Bitcoin remains to be a risk-on asset, and it trades like one.
As Portnoy identified, it seems to be increasingly more like just another part of the system it was meant to switch—”Market up, bitcoin up. Market down, bitcoin down.” Or, as Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, said, “BTC worth actions are associated to sentiment. Danger on, up. Danger off, down.”
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This text Dave Portnoy Says What Many Are Thinking, ‘If Bitcoin’s Supposed To Be Independent of Dollar, Why Does It Trade Just Like The Stock Market?’ initially appeared on Benzinga.com
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