Recommendations
Entry is the asset's closing price on the publication date. Current is the last close on record.
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Entry $64,372.00 18 Aug 2026Current $64,333.00 19 Aug 2026Result −$39.00
Crypto, especially Bitcoin, is the most liquid and established currently offers very high conviction contrarian exposure for anyone with a multi-year horizon who believes the long-term adoption thesis remains intact.
Full Transcript
The S&P 500 just hit an all-time high. The Russell 2000 all-time high. The Nasdaq's pretty damn close. In crypto, the asset class that was supposed to be the highest beta play on everything going on in the markets. Single worst performing major asset class on Earth since January 2025. Silver's up 107%, copper's up 66%, gold up 6%, NASDAQ up 38%, Russell's up 31%. In the same time frame, Bitcoin down 35%, Ethereum down 47%, altcoins down 57% on average. many down to zero and never coming back. More brutal and measured from of course the highs of late 2025. Every major asset class on Earth made serious money while crypto investors sat in the only thing that went the wrong direction all damn year for 18 months. Here's why that's the most bullish thing I've seen in years. Oh yes, we're going to bull guys. First, the brutality deserves some honest acknowledgement because let's not gloss over this. It's bad. Crypto didn't just underperform. It catastrophically underperformed everything at one of the highest risk periods in recent history. The metal that's been in the ground for thousands of years out before Bitcoin by 142 percentage points. Physical silver against the most advanced technological monetary network ever created wasn't even close. Several forces converge reduces outcome and worth understanding. Not to excuse the performance, but because understanding why something lag tells you whether the lag is permanent or temporary. Capital of course did rotate hard into AI. The dominant narrative momentum trade shifted to semiconductors infrastructure, meggaap tech, and the IPO pipeline. risk capital that previously chased crypto moved there instead because well, it's where the money is being made. Crypto lost its glimmer. It lost its status as the primary high beta momentum vehicle. AI is the new game in town. When the momentum trade changed, the flows changed with it. The macro backdrop turned hostile. Higher real rates, stronger dollar, a Fed leaning against cuts. All of it hurt zero yield speculative assets more than cash flow generating equities or physical commodities. Crypto is more sensitive to liquidity conditions than almost any other asset class. ETF flows reversed. The institutional bid that powered the prior leg up dried up. Spot Bitcoin ETFs went from record inflows to some of the worst outflow months on record. In fact, June was a record outflow month. The corporate treasury buying narrowed then the fuel ran out completely and they went bankrupt. Bitcoin failed at its own narrative simultaneous. It was supposed to be digital gold. Gold went up 6%, Bitcoin went down 35%. It was supposed to catch equity upside as a high beta risk asset. Equities made all-time highs. Bitcoin made new lows. Every framing failed in the same window. Sentiment didn't just get bearish, it got exhausted. But here's what the performance numbers alone can't tell you. And it's the thing that changes how every one of these brutal statistics really should be thought about. Because buried inside the worst relative performance crypto has ever delivered against every other asset class on the planet is a signal that's appeared six times in the last 15 years. And every single time that it appeared, what followed made the underperformance look like a gift. Here is the data that you're not being told and you need to hear right now. The copper signal and the business cycle. Six completed copper gold ratio bottoms over the last 15 years. Bitcoin one year later 6 for six positive medium return 443% worst return 37%. Every single instance no exceptions price went up. The returns by year 2011 190% 2012 3,000% 2015 60 2016 700 2020 69 2022 37. The copper gold ratio isn't a cryptotric. It's one of the most reliable leading indicators of global economic expansion and business cycle turning points that exists. When copper outperforms gold, it signals for something very simple. Industrial demand is accelerating. Factories are ordering. Infrastructure is being built. The economy genuinely expanding rather than just financial markets rallying. Copper just hit all-time highs. The ratio just flipped. And this isn't just a technical indicator firing. It's the first business cycle bull flip in six effing years. The last six times this happened. Bitcoin delivered massive returns, 443% on average. In the following year, the worst was 37%. These aren't cherrypicked numbers from obscure periods. They span every macro environment. bull market, bare market, rate hike cycles, quantitative easing, quantitative tightening. The signal doesn't care about the narrative. It cares about liquidity, economic expansion, and the risk appetite that follows when the real economy starts to grow fast enough that people have capital to deploy into [ __ ] dog coins. I mean, higher beta assets. ISM manufacturing PMI is approaching 57. Every single time in history that it broke above 55, crypto went on to significant new highs in the following months. The economic conditions that prevent that an altcoin season, the tighter liquidity, contracted industrial demand, the riskoff impulse are reversing in real time. And yes, the AI trade is still sucking up capital, but it doesn't mean it's not enough capital for crypto, too. If the business cycle just flipped and crypto is about to deliver it seven consecutive positive year following the signal, you want to be on the infrastructure that's ready for what comes next. That's Kraken. The medium return in the 12 months after the copper gold ratio flipped, 400%, the worst case, 37%. When the move comes, it doesn't come gradually. It comes fast. It comes loud. And the exchanges that can't handle the volume are the ones that fail exactly when you need them the most. Kraken has been here through every cycle since 2011. Regulated, audited, customer funds intact. I've been using them since 2019 and love them. Options, prop trading, stocks on leverage, all your favorite coins, deep crypto liquidity, available in the US, UK, EU, and most major jurisdictions. Don't miss the next big move. Sign up through the link down below and be on a platform that's going to be there for you. Now, here's why the underperformance is the signal, not the problem. Here's the reframe that probably will get you to think about things a little bit differently about how you read the last 18 months. Cryptos underperformance versus equities and commodities isn't evidence the structural case has broken down. Is evidence that flows and narrative temporarily went elsewhere and that the relative value gap that opened up is historically extreme. Think about it. All of crypto together is worth as much as SpaceX. Structural progress has continued underneath the price the entire time. Spot ETFs exist and are growing. Regulatory frameworks are advancing. The stable coin and tokenization infrastructure is deeper than any prior cycle. Institutional plumbing, custody, compliance, products. It's never been better. It's literally never been better, more mature than ever. The assets got cheaper. The infrastructure got better. The assets got cheaper. The onchain reality got better. The combination has historically not lasted. The gap between crypto's performance and everything else is now so extreme that the mean reversion alone without any kind of major catalyst will produce significant returns from here. Add in a catalyst and the reversion becomes violent and the catalysts are queued up. The Clarity Act vote whether or not it goes through. If it does go through, it's a major catalyst. The Fed's eventual pivot from hiking to cutting is going to come. ETF inflows have already been quietly reversing. The copper gold signal, the PMI expansion, the business cycle turning, relative cheapness plus washed out sent out of sellers, plus a positioning reversal signal that has preceded every major crypto rally in history. Not some of them, but every single one. There's no guaranteed trade. The honest version of this analysis requires saying that clearly. Macro liquidity is still a headwind for zero yield risk assets if rates stay elevated. Near-term catalysts are uncertain in timing. Draw downs can of course deepen before they reverse. The opportunity cost is real if AIdriven equities keep leading. But here's what a reasonable allocation framework looks like given everything we've laid out. Crypto, especially Bitcoin, is the most liquid and established currently offers very high conviction contrarian exposure for anyone with a multi-year horizon who believes the long-term adoption thesis remains intact. That's it. Not a big constraint vet, but a size position that reflects asymmetry. Okay, I'm not 100% Bitcoin and probably most of you guys shouldn't be either. The downside from here is bounded by the most concentrated long-term holder base in Bitcoin's history and the largest whale accumulation ever recorded. The upside is bounded by what happens when $40 trillion in institutional capital gets regulatory permission to participate. And the business cycle signals a return to that kind of expansion. The kind of expansion has historically driven the price up by an average of 400%. Medium returns of course in the 12 months after the copper gold ratio flips are not something that should be ignored. It's pretty insane. The gap versus other assets is the signal. Whether it closes soon depends on flows and liquidity returning, but the data says they're already starting to. That's the setup, not the risk. In 2027, people will look at August 2026 crypto prices the way they look at March 2020 stock prices. Obvious in hindsight, excruciating in the moment. That's exactly what a real opportunity feels like.
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