Bitcoin (BTC) has often been referred to as “digital gold” because of its scarcity and decentralized nature.
Like gold, Bitcoin cannot be arbitrarily created and its supply is capped at 21 million coins. This makes it resistant to inflation and government manipulation.
It was during the 2013 bull run and especially after the 2020 macroeconomic crisis that the term became more prominent. Institutional investors started treating Bitcoin as a hedge against monetary debasement.
However, for Stifel’s Barry Bannister, that narrative is no longer holding any truth.
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Bitcoin sell-off puts ‘digital gold’ narrative under scrutiny
After last week’s massive crash, Bitcoin has been slowly making its way back up. But the pace is not steady.
At press time, Bitcoin was down by 0.8% in the past 24 hours and was trading at $68,460.84. This is over 57% lower than the peak it reached in October 2025.
Bannister, who is Stifel Financial Corp’s (SF) chief equity strategist, said in an interview with CNBC on Feb.9 that Bitcoin (BTC) was not behaving like “digital gold.”
“Bitcoin is not digital gold. When you think about gold, when it does well and when it does best, historically, it’s because of higher-than-expected inflation with lower growth, basically stagflation. But Bitcoin really behaves more like a high-liquidity-driven speculative financial instrument, more like a big tech stock.”
Bannister pointed to a shift in how Bitcoin reacts to macro signals. Bitcoin tended to rise when the U.S. dollar weakened.
“For 15 years, Bitcoin would go up when the dollar went down. Now the dollar goes down, and Bitcoin also goes down with it.”
Bannister also framed Bitcoin as a liquidity-driven trade rather than a defensive asset. He said that crypto, for the most part, represented a bet on the eventual downfall of the dollar. He described it as a kind of libertarian dream, but added that he did not believe the dollar was going away.
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Analyst explains Bitcoin price target
Last week, Stifel analysts predicted a potential slide in Bitcoin’s price to $38,000.
When asked about the target, Bannister pointed out at the historical patterns of Bitcoin.
“We’ve had three major drawdowns in 15 years, and each one stopped at roughly the same point on a chart in percentage terms, with a slight increase in angle. That came out to be roughly 38,000 to 40,000. Just hold on and be careful.”
Bannister cautioned that Bitcoin was a highly speculative instrument, similar to the Nasdaq 100.
He explained that market multiples did not appear sustainable across the broader market, and as those multiples declined alongside less supportive interest rates, the “most speculative elements of the market,” including Bitcoin, would likely face downward pressure.
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