Bitcoins lackluster results this year have puzzled investors.
Despite record highs in stocks, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has struggled to regain momentum, while US tech stocks have rallied on enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, currently trading just below the $62,000 mark, down more than 50% from its peak in October.
Two new outlooks from asset managers Hashdex and Charles Schwab claim the disruption is temporary, albeit for different reasons.
Samir Kerbage, chief investment officer at Hashdex, said crypto’s recent weakness says more about where investors are allocating capital than the health of the digital asset ecosystem.
“Capital follows attention and narratives,” Kerbage wrote in a midyear market outlook. “Crypto has benefited from this in the past, but right now attention is elsewhere. AI infrastructure plays, IPO pipelines, macro positioning around interest rate expectations are absorbing the flows.”
This rotation, he argued, has overshadowed several structural developments that continue to strengthen crypto’s long-term investment case. Institutional infrastructure is expanding across banks, brokers and payment providers, while regulatory clarity in the US has improved and could be strengthened further if Congress passes the CLARITY Act this summer.
Meanwhile, crypto’s underlying use continues to grow even as prices remain subdued.
