The ongoing artificial intelligence stock frenzy has drawn in capital from across the market, from traditional metals, considered the safest assets, to cryptos, considered the riskiest.
Gold fell below $4,000 for the first time since November earlier this week, silver has lost more than half its value from its peak and bitcoin has fallen to nearly $58,000.
The three divestments are not a coincidence. For much of the past two years they have been very much the same trade, and now the same forces are winding it down.
That trade even has a name, the “debasement” trade. It is the bet that large government spending and rising national debt will slowly erode the value of paper money, pushing investors toward scarce assets that no government can print more of.
Gold and silver are the oldest versions of this bet, while bitcoin, with a supply of 21 million coins, was marketed as the digital version. Through 2025, when the dollar looked vulnerable, money poured into all three and they were treated as one basket.
