Bitcoin (BTC) regained ground on Wednesday, climbing back to nearly $124,000 after a flush to $120,000 the day before. It was recently trading at $123,500, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours. Altcoins followed the move higher but didn’t reclaim the levels seen earlier in the week. Ethereum (ETH), Ripple’s XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), dogecoin (DOGE) and Avalanche (AVAX) each added between 1% and 3%. The CoinDesk 20 Index, which tracks a basket of major digital assets, rose 2%. Looking at crypto-related stocks, BTC miners tied to high-performance computing infrastructure once again led gains. Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Bitfarms (BITF) jumped 11%–12%, while CleanSpark (CLSK) and Hut 8 (HUT) added around 6%. The gains build on optimism that artificial intelligence-driven demand for computing power will benefit crypto miners. Meanwhile, minutes from the September Federal Reserve meeting released on Wednesday showed most officials still anticipate interest rate cuts later this year. Some policymakers, however, argued a cut wasn’t necessary in September, and the majority emphasized upside risks to inflation. Gold still leads the debasement trade Despite the crypto bounce, gold continues to lead the " debasement trade ," surging past $4,000 and now up 50% this year. The rally is fueled by rising government deficits, shaky bond markets and expectations of looser monetary policy. Japanese yields hit 17-year highs this week, adding to global investor anxiety and sending capital toward gold as a safe haven—at the expense of risk assets like crypto. Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree, said gold’s rally isn’t being driven by speculation. "The market is hot, but it’s not red hot," he said. "If deficits, money printing, instability and rate cuts are driving the gold price higher, perhaps those things need to change before we turn bearish." “Gold will make an intermediate peak at some point, but it’s best not to guess when that is and wait for evidence,” he added. Bitcoin, he argued, could be the next asset to catch a bid once gold's shine fades, pointing to the largest crypto’s historical role as a second-wave beneficiary in macro-driven risk rotations. "When gold starts to cool, the chances are that bitcoin will get going again," Morris said. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, reiterated in his long-term outlook that bitcoin could eventually capture half the market size of gold. That scenario, he explained in a Tuesday X post, hinges on bitcoin as a "digital gold" being a more appealing store of value for younger generations. With the latest gold gains, that projection would imply a $644,000 per BTC price, he said.
