Key Highlights

• The memory chip manufacturer submitted a confidential filing to the SEC for a U.S. ADR listing, with plans to finalize the process by 2026
• SK Hynix aims to generate between $6.7 billion and $10 billion through this capital raising initiative
• Capital will be directed toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, including the Yongin HBM production cluster and an advanced packaging plant in Indiana
• During the annual shareholder gathering, CEO Kwak Noh-Jung announced plans to amass over 100 trillion won in net cash for strategic long-term investments
• Shares of SK Hynix climbed more than 5% in Seoul trading on Wednesday; the stock has appreciated approximately 60% since the beginning of the year

Shares of SK Hynix experienced a significant rally of over 5% during Wednesday’s trading session in Seoul following confirmation that the memory chip manufacturer had submitted a confidential filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a prospective Wall Street debut. The stock’s year-to-date performance shows an impressive gain of approximately 60%, building on a remarkable 274% surge recorded in 2025.

The South Korean chipmaker intends to introduce American Depositary Receipts on U.S. exchanges and is working toward finalizing this offering before the end of 2026. According to company statements, precise details surrounding the offering’s magnitude and timeline remain under development.

According to reports from Korean financial media outlets, the company has set a fundraising target in the range of 10 trillion to 15 trillion won — equivalent to approximately $6.7 billion to $10 billion based on prevailing exchange rates.

SK Hynix initially revealed its intentions to pursue a U.S. stock market presence in December of last year. This strategic initiative aims to secure additional capital necessary for manufacturing capacity expansion as the appetite for AI-optimized memory chips remains exceptionally strong.

As the global frontrunner in high-bandwidth memory chip production, SK Hynix supplies critical components for AI processing units manufactured by major clients including Nvidia. The surge in HBM demand has intensified dramatically, contributing to a worldwide shortage of memory products and upward pressure on pricing.

Major Infrastructure Investments Underway

The capital secured through this offering is anticipated to support the company’s high-bandwidth memory semiconductor manufacturing complex in Yongin, South Korea, including a $15 billion production facility, along with its sophisticated packaging operations in Indiana. Management is also evaluating the establishment of an AI-focused investment division based in Silicon Valley.

During Wednesday’s annual meeting with shareholders, Chief Executive Kwak Noh-Jung outlined the company’s objective to accumulate more than 100 trillion won in net cash reserves to support long-range strategic initiatives.

The company’s recently completed M15X fabrication plant in Cheongju, South Korea, reached operational status earlier than originally projected. Development work continues on both the Yongin manufacturing cluster and the Indiana advanced packaging facility.

A communication distributed to shareholders highlighted “unprecedented growth” occurring within the memory market, characterizing memory as “a key-value product that determines the performance of AI systems.”

Massive Equipment Procurement Agreement

Merely one day prior to announcing the SEC filing, SK Hynix revealed plans to acquire 11.95 trillion won ($7.97 billion) in cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing equipment from ASML — representing one of the largest publicly disclosed procurement contracts for such technology on record.

The coordination between the ASML equipment purchase and the SEC filing submission signals a company acting decisively to cement its dominant position in the HBM marketplace ahead of competitors Samsung and Micron.

Samsung has been working aggressively to regain market share in the HBM segment, while Micron continues expanding its footprint as a domestically-based option for AI memory requirements in the United States.

SK Hynix indicated it will provide additional disclosures once specific parameters of the U.S. listing have been determined, or no later than six months following the initial submission.

The company’s ADR offering will utilize currently outstanding shares rather than issuing new equity, a structure that maintains value for existing shareholders.

Key Takeaways

• Amazon has finalized its purchase of Fauna Robotics, a humanoid robot company based in New York and established in 2024 by former engineers from Meta and Google.
• The startup’s flagship product, Sprout, is a bipedal humanoid robot measuring 3’6″ tall with a $50,000 price tag, operating on NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin technology.
• The transaction was completed last week, with no public disclosure of the acquisition price.
• Approximately 50 Fauna employees will transition to Amazon’s Personal Robotics Group in New York, functioning under the brand “Fauna, an Amazon company.”
• This acquisition follows closely on the heels of Amazon’s purchase of Rivr, a Swiss robotics company, indicating an aggressive expansion into consumer and delivery automation.

On Tuesday, Amazon publicly confirmed the completion of its acquisition of Fauna Robotics, a startup focused on humanoid robots that was launched in 2024 by engineering veterans from Meta and Google. The transaction reached its conclusion last week, although the purchase price remains undisclosed.

$AMZN has acquired Fauna Robotics marking its entry into the consumer humanoid market after the deal closed last week.

Fauna is developing a compact 42-inch humanoid called Sprout that can walk, grip objects, interact with people and even dance. pic.twitter.com/ibRfxcIOuT

— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) March 24, 2026

With this strategic purchase, Amazon enters the increasingly competitive arena of humanoid robotics, a sector that has witnessed substantial growth and innovation in recent years.

The flagship offering from Fauna is Sprout — a two-legged robot that stands at 3 feet 6 inches and tips the scales at 50 pounds. The design philosophy emphasizes accessibility and consumer appeal rather than industrial warehouse applications.

Amazon.com, Inc., AMZN

Priced at $50,000, Sprout is packaged with integrated software, gripper attachments, and a replaceable battery providing approximately 3 hours of operational time. The robot leverages NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin robotics computing platform and features memory capabilities that develop over time.

Sprout’s capabilities include walking, dancing, door manipulation, name recognition, and engaging in two-way conversations. Notable early adopters include Disney and Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics division.

The entire Fauna team of approximately 50 personnel will relocate to an Amazon facility in New York, maintaining operations under the designation “Fauna, an Amazon company.” Both co-founders, Rob Cochran and Josh Merel, will remain with the organization.

The integration places Fauna within Amazon’s Personal Robotics Group — a distinct division separate from the company’s warehouse automation operations.

Amazon’s Robotics Evolution

Amazon’s involvement in robotics extends over ten years. The company’s $775 million purchase of Kiva Systems in 2012 established the foundation for Amazon Robotics, which currently powers the company’s warehouse automation infrastructure.

Amazon previously ventured into the home robotics market with Astro, a $1,600 mobile household robot introduced in 2021 that continues to operate on an invitation-only basis. Sprout represents a more targeted consumer-focused initiative.

The Fauna acquisition arrives mere days after Amazon revealed its purchase of Rivr, a Swiss enterprise developing robotic solutions for last-mile delivery.

Intensifying Competition in Humanoid Robotics

Amazon enters an increasingly saturated marketplace. Tesla is advancing its Optimus humanoid robot at its Fremont manufacturing facility, with CEO Elon Musk projecting annual production of 1 million units.

Additional competitors in this domain include 1X, Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, and China-based Unitree.

Amazon has indicated intentions to leverage its robotics knowledge, retail infrastructure, and devices division expertise to investigate potential applications for personal robots in consumer settings.

According to an Amazon spokesperson, the company is “excited about Fauna’s vision to build capable, safe, and fun robots for everyone.”

AMZN shares concluded Tuesday’s trading session with a 2.28% increase, gaining $4.73.

Solana price rises back above $90 with multi-billion-dollar volume as traders bet on congestion fixes, the Alpenglow upgrade, and SOL’s role as a leading high-throughput layer-1.

Solana (SOL) price is changing hands around $92.39 today, up 0.62% in the last hour, 3.27% over the past 24 hours and 2.78% in the past week, giving it a market capitalization of about $52.88 billion and 24-hour trading volume near $4.18 billion. External dashboards place SOL’s current price in the $92.02–$92.64 band, with a circulating supply of roughly 572.25 million tokens, a market cap of around $52.65–$52.89 billion and 24-hour volume between about $4.34 billion and $4.39 billion. Over the past several sessions in March, daily closes have clustered roughly in an $86–$94 range, confirming a consolidation phase after a volatile start to the month.

That performance is unfolding in a firm market: the total crypto market cap stands near $2.45 trillion, up about 1.31% over the last day, putting Solana among the stronger large-cap performers over the same period. In earlier March snapshots, SOL traded around $84.56 with a market cap of $48.18 billion and 24-hour volume of $5.40 billion, then climbed toward the mid-$90 area with a market capitalization near $54 billion and daily volume described as “moderate,” highlighting a steady recovery rather than a single spike. Together, these figures point to a liquid, actively traded market where price is being driven by both spot demand and derivatives positioning.

Solana is a high-throughput layer-1 blockchain that combines a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism with a timing technique called proof of history, which allows validators to order transactions more efficiently and target tens of thousands of transactions per second. The network has become a core venue for decentralized finance, NFTs, and consumer apps, with SOL serving as the native asset for transaction fees, staking and collateral, firmly placing it in the layer-1 smart contract platform category rather than a DeFi protocol or AI token. Historically, this speed-focused design has come with a trade-off: Solana has experienced multiple outages and congestion episodes, including several multi-hour network halts in 2023 and earlier, which pushed developers and validators to prioritize stability improvements.​

More recently, the project has been preparing a major core protocol overhaul known as Alpenglow, described as the most significant reconsideration of Solana’s architecture to date and expected in the first half of 2026. Community governance records show that about 98% of participating token holders backed the upgrade in a 2025 vote, indicating broad internal support for changes aimed at improving decentralization, throughput and fee dynamics. In parallel, client teams have rolled out updates such as version 1.17.31 and follow-on releases to mitigate persistent network congestion and transaction failures that surfaced during recent periods of high meme-coin and NFT activity.

Although detailed whale transaction feeds for Solana are spread across multiple analytics sites, available market metrics demonstrate heavy participation by larger traders and leveraged players. Historical data shows that on March 25, 2026, SOL traded in a $90.82–$93.21 band with daily volume around 4.43 billion units, corresponding to multi-billion-dollar turnover at current prices. Another dataset cites a volume-to-market-cap ratio near 8.2–8.3%, based on roughly $4.34–$4.39 billion in volume against a market cap just above $52.6 billion, a level of activity consistent with ongoing directional trading and derivatives hedging rather than solely passive holding.

Sector-wide, Solana is part of a cluster of alternative layer-1 networks that includes Ethereum, Avalanche and Sui, all of which compete on smart contract capacity but with different trade-offs in fees, security models and decentralization. Today, Ethereum trades around $2,180 with a market cap of about $263.11 billion and 24-hour volume near $19.19 billion, while Avalanche changes hands around $9.74 with a market cap of $4.21 billion and $262.28 million in daily volume, and Sui trades near $0.969 with a market cap of $3.78 billion and $382.72 million in 24-hour volume. This positions Solana as one of the most valuable and actively traded non-Ethereum smart contract platforms, a status that has persisted despite its checkered stability history and now rests heavily on the successful delivery of congestion fixes and the Alpenglow upgrade.

Within that broader landscape, Solana’s latest push back above $90 looks like a textbook consolidation rally in a flagship layer-1: price grinding higher in a defined range, supported by billions in daily volume and a clear catalyst path in the form of protocol upgrades and congestion relief.

Led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the U.K. government has announced an immediate moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties, citing concerns that digital assets could be used to hide the origins of foreign money in British politics, according to the Press Association.

The move puts crypto at the centre of a wider crackdown on foreign interference, signaling that regulators are increasingly treating anonymous digital payments as a democratic risk rather than just a financial one.

The ban, triggered by the government-commissioned Rycroft review, covers donations of any size and takes effect today. Parties have 30 days from now to return any crypto received once legislation is passed, after which criminal penalties apply. Overseas donations from British expats will also be capped at £100,000 a year.

The review’s author, former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, stopped short of calling for a permanent ban — framing the moratorium as a pause for regulation to catch up with reality. But with the rules written into the Representation of the People Bill currently going through Parliament, the bar to lift them is high.

“I wasn’t here to look out for the interests of any political party,” Rycroft said. “I was here to look out for the interest of our democratic processes.”

Members of Reform U.K., which currently leads polling data, walked out of Parliament during the announcement. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took a pointed swipe at Reform leader Nigel Farage, suggesting he would “say anything, no matter how divisive, if he is paid to do so.”

Quick Overview

• Nvidia shares advanced 1.6% in premarket hours Wednesday, trading at $177.97
• Arm Holdings unveiled the Arm AGI CPU for data centers, projecting $15B yearly revenue by 2031
• The Arm chip doesn’t directly challenge Nvidia’s GPU dominance but may overlap with Nvidia’s Vera CPU lineup
• Amazon Web Services committed to acquiring 1 million Nvidia GPUs for AI inference workloads, valued above $50 billion
• Nvidia restarts H200 chip manufacturing and develops China-compliant Groq 3 variants, potentially adding $32B in annual sales

Nvidia shares moved higher during early Wednesday sessions, brushing aside concerns about Arm Holdings’ entry into the AI chip arena. The development coincided with two significant revenue opportunities that had escaped widespread attention.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

Arm revealed its inaugural data center CPU on Tuesday evening—the Arm AGI CPU—identifying Meta Platforms and OpenAI among its initial clients. During an after-hours investor presentation, Arm outlined aggressive financial targets, forecasting approximately $15 billion in yearly CPU revenue by 2031 as part of a comprehensive $25 billion revenue objective.

Arm shares surged 12% in premarket activity following the disclosure.

However, industry observers were swift to clarify that this new processor doesn’t directly challenge Nvidia’s flagship GPU offerings.

Benchmark Research’s Cody Acree noted that Arm’s strategy is “less about catching up to the accelerator wave and more about inserting itself deeper into the architecture that governs how AI infrastructure actually runs.”

Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, appeared in Arm’s promotional content, characterizing their nearly twenty-year collaboration as the backbone for “one seamless platform, from cloud to edge to AI factories.”

The competitive dynamic becomes more nuanced regarding Nvidia’s recently launched Vera CPUs, introduced during last week’s developer conference. J.P. Morgan’s Harlan Sur highlighted potential overlap between Arm’s chip and that product category. He additionally noted Meta’s existing agreement with Nvidia for Arm-architecture CPUs—complicating the competitive landscape.

Amazon Web Services Makes Massive Nvidia Commitment

Separately, Amazon Web Services revealed plans to procure 1 million Nvidia GPUs dedicated to AI inference capabilities. The announcement caught many off guard—AWS had previously promoted itself as housing “the largest cluster of non-Nvidia chips in the world” following its October 2025 Indiana data center deployment.

The agreement encompasses a “broad mix” of six supplementary Nvidia chip variants, including the recently announced Groq 3 inference processors, alongside Nvidia networking equipment. Industry estimates place the complete package well beyond $50 billion, with completion targeted by late 2027.

This singular agreement accounts for approximately 25% of Nvidia’s total 2025 annual revenue.

Chinese Market Revenue Resumes

CEO Jensen Huang confirmed last week that Nvidia is resuming manufacturing of its H200 processor—engineered to meet U.S. export control requirements—specifically for Chinese customers. Industry sources suggest a China-compliant Groq 3 variant is also under development.

Nvidia had incorporated zero Chinese data center sales into its Q1 projections. Throughout 2025, those revenues approximated $8 billion quarterly—roughly $32 billion on an annualized basis, representing about 15% of total 2025 revenue.

Together, the AWS contract and China market reentry represent over $82 billion in revenue streams absent from Nvidia’s current financial forecasts.

Nvidia shares traded 1.6% higher at $177.97 during premarket hours Wednesday, rebounding from a 0.3% decline in the previous session.

Key Insights

• Circle shares fell nearly 20% as draft rules threaten stablecoin reward models and user incentives
• Proposed limits on yield could reduce USDC adoption and weaken exchange-driven demand
• Tether audit plans and wallet freezes added pressure to Circle’s market position

Shares of Circle Internet Group fell sharply on March 24, dropping nearly 20% in one session. The stock declined from about $127 to near $102. This marked one of its steepest recent losses. The decline came after a good surge in March where shares soared below $60 to over $130.

Source: TradingView

The trading volume rose through the downturn, signaling intense selling pressure. The action implied a swift change in investor mood. Market participants reacted to emerging concerns around stablecoin regulation.

The decline also affected related firms. Shares of Coinbase fell nearly 10% during the same session. Analysts linked the broader sell-off to uncertainty in the stablecoin sector.

Draft Proposal Targets Reward Structures

Reports indicated that draft legislative language could restrict how platforms offer stablecoin rewards. The proposal would prohibit yield for simply holding stablecoins. It would also ban incentives that resemble traditional interest payments.

The rules would apply to exchanges, brokers, and related services. However, the proposal allows activity-based rewards tied to user behavior. These include loyalty or promotional programs that do not function like interest.

Analysts noted that such restrictions could reduce the appeal of holding USD Coin. Rewards are used by many platforms to attract deposits and keep users. In absence of these incentives, stablecoins can be less competitive with bank products.

Competitive Pressure and Additional Developments

At the same time, Tether announced plans for a full financial audit. The move could improve its transparency profile. This development may narrow Circle’s perceived advantage as a compliant issuer.

Separately, reports indicated that Circle froze USDC balances linked to several wallets. The action related to an ongoing U.S. civil case, though details remain limited. These developments added further uncertainty for investors.

Analysts stated that limiting rewards could weaken long-term demand for USDC. Exchange-driven incentives currently support a significant share of stablecoin activity. Any reduction in these programs may affect user behavior and revenue models.

Kooc Media, a specialist PR distribution agency headquartered in the United Kingdom, has opened its doors to the iGaming industry with a dedicated press release service for online casinos, sportsbooks, betting platforms and gambling affiliates. The service delivers confirmed article placements on the agency’s own news websites, expert content creation by an in-house editorial team, and optional newswire distribution that can place gambling brand announcements on some of the biggest media platforms in the world.

Online gambling has quietly become one of the most profitable digital industries on the planet. Millions of players across dozens of regulated markets spend billions each year on sports betting, online slots, live dealer games, poker and other casino products. The industry employs tens of thousands of people and attracts serious investment from both private equity and public markets.

Despite all of this, the iGaming sector remains badly underserved when it comes to professional public relations. Most gambling companies that have tried to secure press coverage through conventional PR agencies have come away disappointed. The standard experience involves paying a retainer, waiting weeks for outreach results and ending up with little or nothing to show for it. Journalists at mainstream outlets frequently ignore pitches from betting and casino brands, and many generalist PR firms lack the knowledge to craft effective messaging for the gambling audience.

Kooc Media spotted this problem years ago while working with clients in similarly challenging industries. The agency was founded in 2017 and built its reputation providing PR services for crypto projects, fintech startups and technology companies — sectors that face comparable media resistance. The decision to formally extend its services to iGaming was driven by increasing demand from gambling brands looking for a PR partner that could actually deliver measurable results.

“We kept hearing from iGaming companies who had been let down by other agencies,” said Michelle De Gouveia, spokesperson for Kooc Media. “They had spent money on PR and received nothing in return. Our model is the opposite of that. We guarantee placements, we publish fast, and we prove everything with live links. That is what the gambling industry has been waiting for.”

How the Service Works in Practice

The process Kooc Media has developed for its iGaming PR clients is deliberately straightforward. A gambling brand comes to the agency with an announcement — it could be a new casino launch, a sportsbook entering a regulated market, a software integration, a licensing achievement, a rebrand, a partnership deal or any other piece of genuine business news.

From there, Kooc Media’s editorial team takes over. They write a professional press release based on the client’s brief, handling the structure, messaging and tone. The client reviews the draft and requests any changes. Once approved, the article goes live.

Publication happens across the agency’s owned network of news sites, which includes titles such as Blockonomi, CoinCentral, MoneyCheck, Parameter, Beanstalk and Computing. These are established publications covering finance, technology, business and digital trends. All of them are indexed by Google News, which gives every published article the chance to appear in Google News feeds and rank in organic search results.

Most articles are live within 24 hours of client approval. For brands working to tight deadlines around product launches, sporting events or regulatory milestones, this speed is a major advantage.

Clients who want their announcement to reach a wider audience can choose packages that include distribution through partner newswire networks. At the highest tier, this can result in placements appearing on outlets such as Business Insider, Bloomberg, Benzinga, MarketWatch, USA Today and feeds linked to Dow Jones. For an online casino or sportsbook, landing coverage on platforms of that calibre creates instant credibility.

After every campaign, clients receive a full report containing live links to each published article. There is no ambiguity about what was delivered.

The Strategic Case for iGaming PR

Gambling companies invest heavily in marketing. Paid search, affiliate partnerships, social media campaigns, sponsorship deals and television advertising have all been core channels for the industry. But each of these channels is becoming more difficult or more expensive to use effectively.

Google restricts gambling advertising in many markets. Social media platforms continue to tighten their rules around betting content. Television advertising bans for gambling are being implemented or expanded across parts of Europe. Even sports sponsorship, once the go-to branding tool for sportsbooks, is under increasing regulatory pressure in several countries.

Public relations cuts through many of these restrictions. A press release published on a respected news website reaches audiences through organic search and news aggregation rather than through paid advertising channels. It is not subject to the same platform restrictions that limit other forms of gambling marketing. And it carries inherent credibility because the content appears on a third-party publication rather than on the brand’s own website or social media accounts.

The search engine benefits are equally important. Every article placed on a high-authority, Google News indexed website creates a backlink that strengthens the client’s domain authority. Over time, this improves rankings for high-value search terms like “new online casino,” “best sportsbook,” “sports betting platform” and dozens of other phrases that drive player acquisition. For iGaming brands competing in organic search, regular press coverage is not just a branding exercise — it is a core part of the SEO strategy.

Player trust is another factor that makes PR particularly valuable for gambling companies. Online gambling requires customers to hand over personal and financial information to a platform they may have never used before. Players naturally look for signals that a brand is legitimate and trustworthy. Seeing a casino or sportsbook mentioned on a well-known news site provides exactly that kind of reassurance.

Packages Designed Around iGaming Needs

Kooc Media has built its iGaming packages to be flexible enough to serve the full range of businesses operating in the online gambling space. Small operators and startups can access entry-level packages that provide publication across a selection of the agency’s owned websites. These packages are affordable enough for companies working with limited marketing budgets but still deliver real, verifiable media coverage.

Mid-tier options add broader distribution through partner networks and additional placements, suitable for growing brands that want more visibility without committing to a large-scale campaign. Premium packages provide the full newswire experience with distribution across major financial and business media, ideal for established operators making significant announcements.

Custom campaigns are available for companies with specific needs. Whether a client wants to target particular geographic markets, focus on certain types of publications, or run a sustained monthly PR programme, Kooc Media can build a campaign to match.

All packages include managed content creation. Clients never need to provide a finished press release or hire external writers. The agency handles everything internally, keeping the process simple and fast.

An Agency Built for Industries That Move Fast

Speed, reliability and transparency sit at the centre of everything Kooc Media does. The agency was built to serve industries where timing matters, where results need to be tangible and where traditional PR methods consistently fall short.

“iGaming is a perfect fit for our model,” said De Gouveia. “These are fast-moving companies that need coverage today, not in three weeks. They need to know exactly what they are getting before they spend a penny. And they need an agency that understands their industry well enough to get the messaging right first time. That is what we deliver.”

About Kooc Media

Kooc Media is a specialist PR distribution agency founded in 2017 in the United Kingdom. The company owns and operates multiple news websites and provides guaranteed media placements, professional press release writing, newswire distribution and managed PR campaigns for clients across the crypto, fintech, technology and iGaming industries.

Kooc Media’s gambling PR packages are available now through the company’s website at https://kooc.co.uk.

Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

Gold is currently on its longest losing streak in over a century, its worst run since February 1920, lasting 10 consecutive days, according to Katie Greifeld, Bloomberg analyst.

The yellow metal has fallen as much as 27% from its January all time high, dropping to a low of $4,090, where it found support at its 200 day moving average, a widely watched technical level that often signals longer term trend strength.

However, it has rebounded by around 2% over the past 24 hours, likely signaling the end of the streak. Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict at the end of February, gold remains down roughly 12%.

Meanwhile, bitcoin, often referred to as digital gold, is holding above $70,000, keeping the bitcoin to gold ratio just below 16 ounces. The ratio bottomed at around 12 ounces just before the Middle East conflict, meaning the ratio has risen roughly 30% from those lows, with bitcoin outperforming.

Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree, noted: “I remember the excitement when 1 BTC first surpassed one ounce of gold in March 2017. Since then, it has consistently built higher lows, reaching 2.7 oz in 2019, 3.4 oz during the 2020 pandemic crash, 9.1 oz after the FTX collapse, and 12.4 oz in February this year. Now, one BTC is worth 16 ounces of gold. With gold appearing exhausted, we could reasonably expect a new all time high above 40 ounces in the coming months or years.”

Historically, bitcoin has tended to lag gold in market cycles. Gold typically leads with an initial rally, then consolidates, allowing bitcoin to catch up and outperform.

While, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas argues that bitcoin and gold are not inversely correlated, but rather largely uncorrelated.

He highlights that gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) such as SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and iShares Gold Trust (IAU) have seen billions of dollars in outflows over the past week.

In contrast, bitcoin ETFs have recorded around $2.5 billion in inflows this month, with only about $140 million in net outflows year to date, despite bitcoin being down roughly 20% over that period.

Before the Iran war broke out, Bitcoin spent months trading sideways while gold rallied to record levels.

At the time, gold was seen as the go-to safe haven; inflation concerns remained persistent and geopolitical tensions continued to build, while Bitcoin (BTC) failed to live up to that role.

Nearly a month after the US and Israel launched the first strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, that view is being challenged. Bitcoin initially fell to $63,176 on the news of the attacks but has since risen about 12% to $71,012, as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, rising oil prices and inflation fears have weighed on gold, which fell 11% last week, marking its largest weekly loss since 1983.

However, Jonatan Randin, a senior market analyst at PrimeXBT, said Bitcoin continues to trade like a risk asset rather than a safe haven. It sells off alongside equities during geopolitical shocks. 

“It’s range-bound and showing weakness within a broader downtrend. That’s not safe haven behavior,” he said.

Liquidity is the “dominant” Bitcoin price driver

In recent years, Bitcoin has reacted to global news events, including geopolitical shocks and social media posts from influential figures such as US President Donald Trump. Those moves tend to be short-lived.

Matthew Pinnock, co-founder of decentralized finance project Altura, told Cointelegraph that global liquidity remains the dominant driver of Bitcoin’s price, with macro conditions outweighing headline-driven volatility.

“BTC is trading as a high-beta liquidity asset, which means tighter financial conditions, such as higher real yields, a strong dollar and weaker [exchange-traded fund] inflows, reduce marginal capital and pressure price,” he said.

A September 2024 analysis compiled and written by Sam Callahan of treasury company OranjeBTC found that Bitcoin’s price had a 0.94 correlation with global liquidity between May 2013 and July 2024.

Callahan’s analysis also showed Bitcoin moved in the same direction as global M2 in 83% of 12-month periods, higher than gold, which logged 68.1%. The closest directional alignment after Bitcoin was the S&P 500 index, which represents US large-cap equities and is an often-cited benchmark for risk assets.

Randin said more recent data reflected a similar pattern, pointing to global liquidity rising in the third quarter of 2025, around the time when Bitcoin reached a new all-time high.

The divergence highlights a broader issue with Bitcoin’s safe haven narrative. While it has outperformed gold over certain periods since the war began, its sensitivity to liquidity conditions means it reacts more to financial tightening than to geopolitical stress itself. That complicates the idea of Bitcoin as “digital gold,” particularly in environments where inflation and rates move in tandem.

Related: Bitcoin is a real-time sentiment gauge for weekend warmongering

Oil shock complicates Bitcoin’s inflation narrative

Near-term inflation concerns have been shaping market expectations since the conflict began, driven by rising oil prices and supply disruptions following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important shipping routes in the world.

Randin said rising inflation concerns tied to geopolitical shocks tend to work against Bitcoin in the short term, as higher oil prices feed into inflation expectations, reduce the likelihood of rate cuts and keep real yields elevated. That chain of events tightens financial conditions and suppresses risk appetite, limiting demand for assets like Bitcoin.

In that sense, Bitcoin is not reacting to inflation itself, but to the policy response that follows, said Randin. 

The Iran conflict pushed oil prices above $110 while the Federal Reserve raised its 2026 personal consumption expenditures inflation forecast to 2.7% and signaled a more cautious easing path.

“Bitcoin could be better understood as a long-term monetary debasement hedge rather than a short-term inflation hedge, and that’s a critical distinction,” Randin said.

“It responds to the expansion of money supply over multi-year cycles, not to CPI prints. On the timescale of a war-driven oil shock, it still behaves like the risk asset it is.”

Related: ‘Bitcoin Standard’ author explores reality where decentralized gold stopped WWI

Bitcoin rebounds during Iran conflict but risk profile remains

Bitcoin’s behavior during the Iran conflict still aligns with a risk asset. Each escalation has triggered selloffs, liquidation cascades and tighter correlation with equities, even as Bitcoin has held up better than traditional assets over certain periods.

“But it’s important to remember the context. Bitcoin entered this conflict already in a technical bear market, down over 40% from its October highs and well ahead of equities in pricing in deteriorating conditions,” Randin said.

“So while it has held up relatively well since the strikes began, outperforming the S&P 500, gold and silver over certain windows, it hasn’t given us any meaningful directional move.”

A structural shift would require a clear break from that pattern, and those signals have yet to appear.

Onchain data points to a different undercurrent. Continued accumulation, declining exchange reserves and growing holdings among large wallets suggest positioning is building, even if price action has not reflected it.

However, that positioning is still constrained by macro conditions.

“Right now, inflation driven by a hike in oil prices due to geopolitical factors is pushing yields higher and keeping central banks hawkish, which tightens liquidity. That creates a ‘bad inflation’ regime where BTC falls alongside other risk assets,” Pinnock said.

“The inflation hedge thesis breaks because Bitcoin responds more to monetary expansion than to inflation itself, and currently, conditions are restrictive, not stimulative,” he added.

Until liquidity conditions ease and Bitcoin decouples from equities during stress events, its role as a safe haven remains unproven.

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