Crypto Long & Short: Why gold and bitcoin belong in the same portfolio

Happy Wednesday,

This is your institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:

• Steve Neamtz of Yorkville America on what gold has that bitcoin is still building
• Top headlines institutions should pay attention to by Francisco Rodrigues
• “CHIP rebounds as USD.AI pivots to a loan factory” in Chart of the Week

…and if you’re looking for bitcoin meets Broadway: Crypto is taking the stage in New York City. “Bitcoin Bad Boy,” a comedy by Ben Schiller, runs Oct. 15-25 at the Chain Theatre. The show centers around a family in debt, a coder who wants to build a better world and a memecoin. Learn more.

Thanks for joining us!

- Kim Klemballa

by Steve Neamtz, CEO, Yorkville America

Gold trading near $4,200 an ounce alongside bitcoin holding around $84,000 has revived a familiar argument: Should investors own gold or the “digital gold” alternative?

For 5,000 years, gold has demonstrated its value as a reserve asset. Bitcoin’s 17-year history offers far less empirical evidence. But the supply of both assets cannot be expanded by central bank or fiscal policymakers. Their shared scarcity thus takes on greater significance in a world awash in debt.

In the United States alone, the federal debt has climbed past $39 trillion. The U.S. now spends roughly $1 trillion a year simply servicing its existing debt, and the outlook is even more challenging for much of the developed world. Currencies often serve as the relief valve for fiscal concerns. The U.S. dollar, for example, has lost roughly 40% of its purchasing power over the past two decades.

Against this backdrop, it is important to understand where we believe supply-constrained assets fit within long-term diversified portfolios. A 2025 study in Resources Policy, using multifractal cross-correlation analysis across six asset classes — developed and emerging equities, bonds, commodities, energy and crypto — found that “neither gold nor bitcoin can be classified as a hedge or safe haven for financial markets” under rigorous testing.

That’s a finding about market-drawdown behavior — whether either asset reliably moves against stocks and bonds when markets fall. It says nothing about whether either holds value relative to a currency that is slowly, but steadily, depreciating against them. Investors and allocators buying gold or bitcoin often aren’t using them as shock absorbers. They’re making a debasement bet: that an asset independent of any government’s promise to pay provides diversification benefits.