Gold and silver have gone on a record-setting tear in recent months, ripping through fresh all-time highs, while Bitcoin has been stuck grinding sideways in a tight $84,000\u2013$94,000 box since mid-November. In a January 27 video posted to X, Anthony Pompliano argued the gap is less about a single catalyst and more about shifting demand drivers, market structure, and a new fight for attention and risk capital.<\/p>\n
Pompliano framed the disconnect with blunt scorekeeping. \u201cWe have gold, which is up 80% in the last year. Silver’s up 250%, copper’s up 40%, and platinum’s up nearly 200% over the last 12 months,\u201d he said, before turning to the contrast: \u201cAt the same exact time, Bitcoin is down 16% over the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his telling, the metals aren\u2019t moving as a monolith, they\u2019re responding to different sources of demand. Gold, he said, is benefiting from central banks accumulating reserves and what he described as \u201ca definitization of the global economy,\u201d where flows rotate out of dollars not into other fiat, but into gold.<\/p>\n
Silver, by contrast, is less about store-of-value positioning and more about industrial pull. Pompliano pointed to defense equipment, AI hardware, and self-driving cars as examples of end-demand, arguing that \u201cthe world is building things again\u201d and that re-industrialization makes silver a direct beneficiary.<\/p>\n
Copper and platinum, in his framework, are even cleaner industrial stories. Copper rides electrification (EVs, grid buildouts, renewables) and \u201csignificant industrial demand.\u201d Platinum\u2019s move, he argued, is supply constrained, describing \u201cvery, very low supply\u201d that creates a market structure favorable to holders. Pompliano also highlighted what he called a rotation within metals where gold led, then silver, and more recently copper and platinum, a sequence he dubbed \u201cthe metals mania.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pompliano\u2019s first answer was structural: Wall Street\u2019s adoption is changing who holds Bitcoin and how it trades. He described an \u201cIPO moment of Bitcoin,\u201d (referring to Jordy Visser\u2019s theory), where long-term holders have been handing coins off to institutional players.<\/p>\n
In Pompliano\u2019s view, some early holders owned Bitcoin precisely because it was \u201coutside the system,\u201d and the asset\u2019s migration into mainstream finance may reduce enthusiasm from that cohort. He also pointed to public comments from Peter Thiel and others suggesting Bitcoin\u2019s future may be less \u201casymmetric\u201d than its early years.<\/p>\n
The second structural shift is the proliferation of financial instruments around BTC. \u201cIt used to be really hard to short Bitcoin. Well, now you can do it very simply,\u201d Pompliano said, arguing that options and shorting change the market\u2019s plumbing and dampen volatility. \u201cBitcoin used to be an 80 vol asset. Now it\u2019s more like a 40 vol asset,\u201d he added, positioning the trade-off as fewer parabolic upside phases but also fewer catastrophic drawdowns.<\/p>\n
From there, Pompliano moved to narrative demand \u2014 specifically, the idea that Bitcoin had been treated as a \u201cchaos hedge.\u201d He argued that recent perceptions of rising geopolitical stability have reduced the perceived need for that insurance bid, while central banks, with far larger pools of capital, continue to express their hedge preference through gold. \u201cIt seems like there is not as much of a bid for Bitcoin coming as this insurance hedge,\u201d he said, stressing he viewed it as a flow and narrative issue rather than a loss of utility.<\/p>\n
He made a similar point about inflation hedging, claiming disinflation has undercut one of Bitcoin\u2019s most effective recent narratives. Citing Trueflation, Pompliano said the metric showed 1.2% inflation, \u201c150 basis points lower than it was just 90 days ago,\u201d and argued that AI and tariffs are deflationary forces. If investors don\u2019t expect inflation to run hot, he reasoned, some capital simply won\u2019t reach BTC.<\/p>\n
Finally, he argued Bitcoin is losing mindshare and speculative oxygen to AI and to a broader set of \u201crisk-taking\u201d outlets. \u201cThere is simply more competition,\u201d Pompliano said, extending the idea beyond markets into an attention economy where every asset competes when users open a financial app and decide where to allocate leftover cash. In that framing, Bitcoin is no longer the default high-upside wager for younger participants; it\u2019s competing with AI equities, prediction markets, and sports betting.<\/p>\n
\nWhy is bitcoin lagging while gold, silver, copper, and platinum continue to go higher?<\/p>\n
I break down the forces driving the metals rally, how Wall Street adoption has reshaped Bitcoin\u2019s market structure, and why inflation expectations, global stability, and AI are influencing\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/VzATl6ZCYi<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"\ud83c\udf2a\"](\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/16.0.1\/72x72\/1f32a.png\")
(@APompliano) ![\"Bitcoin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbtc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTCUSDT_2026-01-27_09-49-53.png?resize=1024%2C499\")
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