The shift is visible not just in asset moves, but in where capital is moving — from traditional funds to blockchain-based trading venues. Over the past week, precious metal funds soaked up $1.4 billion in fresh cash while Bitcoin-linked funds saw roughly $300 million in withdrawals as the token slumped to almost $86,000. At the same time, spot gold surged past $5,500, and silver broke $118 per ounce, fueled by a four-year low in the dollar and geopolitical stress.
For a cohort of investors once convinced that computer code was superior to shiny metal, the recent stretch of greenback weakness has been a definitive wake-up call: Bitcoin failed to act as a macro hedge just as the so-called ‘debasement’ trade was back in vogue.Crypto venues like Hyperliquid still see most of their volume tied to native tokens and memecoins, but they’ve also become unlikely barometers of this broader macro shift. Over a 24-hour stretch this week, more than $1 billion in silver futures changed hands — four times the volume of the second most-traded contract, tied to a stock index. On rival exchange Ostium, commodities — mainly gold and silver perpetuals, or “perps” — now account for about 80% of open interest.Perps are crypto-native derivatives that mimic futures but never expire, allowing traders to hold leveraged positions around the clock — ideal for expressing macro views without clearinghouse delays. That speed has turned them into a sharp proxy for speculative appetite in this fast-expanding corner of retail finance.
“Our traders are largely crypto native whales who cut their teeth on crypto and have over the last six-to-nine months increasingly moved into other asset classes, particularly commodities,” said Kaledora Fontana Kiernan-Linn, co-founder of Ostium. The percentage of crypto-related open interest on the exchange has dropped to around 5% the past few months, she said.
BloombergThe “debasement trade” is the idea that Bitcoin should rise when the dollar weakens, acting as a hedge against inflation or currency erosion. It’s a theory that gained traction during the pandemic, when fears of unchecked money printing sent both crypto and gold soaring. But this time, as the dollar slid, gold rallied and Bitcoin didn’t. The 30-day correlation between the two has dropped to -0.18, suggesting they’re now moving in opposite directions.
Meanwhile, crypto wallets — once used solely for tokens — offer direct access to precious metal perps, reinforcing the sense that metals are gaining traction with the core digital-investor base.
The sentiment on the ground is split between opportunistic momentum-chasing and a deeper, more visceral surrender. While many traders are simply following the “FOMO” into metals, a significant cohort has grown angry at Bitcoin’s inability to function as either a momentum trade or a hedge during a month of significant dollar weakness.
“The focus on commodities in the past weeks makes a lot of sense,” said Laurens Fraussen, research analyst at blockchain data platform Kaiko. “Crypto markets operate 24/7 and there’s finally some liquid venues to trade these commodities.”
Hyperliquid has been the most prominent of a new cohort of crypto-native platforms offering perps on everything from tokens to commodities, equities, and pre-IPO shares. As non-crypto perps gain traction, even centralized exchanges like Coinbase Global Inc. and Binance have begun moving into futures tied to traditional assets.
“We’re noticing that volumes on silver are significantly higher than gold, highlighting crypto traders’ inherent tendency to chase the next best beta,” Fraussen said. “We’re also seeing movement into copper in anticipation of the next ‘rotation.’”
The surge of interest in non-crypto perps comes with the digital-asset market yet to see any significant recovery from a plunge in early October that wiped out about $19 billion in assets in a single day. That helps explain why Bitcoin has lagged behind equities and metals during the current risk-on turn. Demand for the new products also picked up late last year, when a Nasdaq-linked contract known as XYZ100 began drawing attention.
“The relative weakness in crypto has caused many on-chain traders to pivot into trading the relative strength of metals,” said Charlie Ambrose, co-founder of Felix, one of the startups on Hyperliquid offering commodity perps products.
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