Bitcoin may finally be having its golden moment, this time soaring in tandem with gold itself.

The top cryptocurrency surged to a one-and-a-half-month high of $87,500 this morning, while gold climbed to a new all-time high of $3,400 per ounce.

Both assets are rallying as investors flee mounting instability in traditional markets.

The US dollar index has slumped to nearly 98, its lowest point since early 2022, amid fears of renewed political pressure on the Federal Reserve and ongoing global trade tensions.

Donald Trump leaned into hard-money rhetoric on Sunday, posting on Truth Social: “The golden rule of negotiating and success: He who has the gold makes the rules!”

Gold broke through to a new all-time high in the hours that followed.

It is now up 100% since the COVID-19 pandemic began, doubling over five years of economic shocks, rate hikes, and stimulus waves.

Fed feud

At the same time, markets are on edge over Trump’s repeated attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom he’s accused of keeping interest rates too high for too long.

“If I want Powell out of there, he’ll be out real fast, believe me,” Trump told reporters last week, fuelling speculation that he may try to unlawfully remove the central bank chief before his term ends in 2026.

The odds of Powell being ousted recently hit 21% on prediction market Polymarket, before slipping back slightly.

Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that such a move could cause chaos: “If Chairman Powell can be fired by the president of the United States, it will crash markets,” she told CNBC on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, triggering sharp warnings from Beijing.

China has threatened “resolute countermeasures” against any country that strikes trade deals at its expense, as global supply chains brace for renewed disruption.

Bitcoin’s moment

The turmoil has been enough that it helped push Bitcoin to a long-term low below $75,000 earlier this month. It marked a loss of over 30% from its $108,000 high in January.

It also reignited criticism that Bitcoin isn’t built to withstand geopolitical headwinds, and that the narrative around Bitcoin being “digital gold” is flawed.

Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick wrote in March that Bitcoin still wasn’t behaving like a true safe-haven asset, noting: “Bitcoin is almost always more correlated to the Nasdaq than to gold.”

But its recent decoupling from stocks is starting to shift the tone. “Bitcoin is pumping while stock futures are trading down,” tweeted Apollo co-founder Thomas Fahrer. “It’s almost like the market is treating it like it’s an alternative financial system or something.”

With the dollar weakening, inflation fears resurfacing, and gold at new highs, Bitcoin may be getting another shot to test its mettle.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin has gained 3.4% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $87,340.
• Ethereum is up 3.2% in the same period to $1,640.

What we’re reading

Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@dlnews.com.