Bitcoin price slips below $78,000 as ‘digital gold’ narrative faces fresh test

Chloe Harper August 29, 2026

Bitcoin fell below $78,000 on Saturday after a sharp pullback from this week’s three-month highs, testing renewed claims that the cryptocurrency is increasingly trading like gold rather than a high-beta technology asset.

Bitcoin was trading at $77,647.0 as of 05:18 ET (09:18 GMT), down about 2.07% over the latest session, after touching above $81,000 earlier in the week.

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The retreat comes as Grayscale data showed Bitcoin’s 90-day correlation with gold has climbed above 50%, from barely above zero at the start of 2026.

At the same time, its correlation with the Nasdaq 100 has fallen to roughly 33% from above 60%, suggesting investors may increasingly be treating Bitcoin as a scarce monetary asset rather than a proxy for technology stocks.

The shift has coincided with renewed concern about U.S. fiscal policy after federal debt surpassed $40 trillion. Rising borrowing requirements and Treasury bond buybacks have revived the so-called debasement trade, which favors scarce assets such as gold and Bitcoin.

On-chain activity also offers little evidence of widespread selling by Bitcoin’s oldest holders.

Six wallets dormant since between 2011 and 2014 moved 553.59 BTC, worth roughly $40 million, between Aug. 16 and Aug. 26, according to Galaxy Research data cited by CoinDesk.

Five sent their coins to addresses without known exchange links, while only one transferred 40 BTC to Boerse Stuttgart Digital. Galaxy said dormant Bitcoin activity during the second quarter fell to its lowest since 2022, with 2026 on course for less than half last year’s total.

Long-term price optimism remains strong. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong recently said Bitcoin has a “good chance” of reaching $100,000 by year-end, while Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has argued Bitcoin could eventually overtake gold’s market capitalization.

Yet another long-term issue is attracting attention: quantum computing.

Ripple has outlined a four-stage plan to prepare the XRP Ledger for quantum-resistant cryptography, while Bitcoin and Ethereum developers are also working on migration strategies before sufficiently advanced quantum computers could threaten existing digital signatures.

For Bitcoin, the latest pullback leaves investors weighing stronger store-of-value characteristics against persistent volatility and emerging technological risks.