According to analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera, the widely discussed narrative that investors abandoned Bitcoin in favor of gold this year does not accurately reflect what actually happened in the market.
Perera argued that capital flows tell a far more nuanced story, suggesting Bitcoin’s weakness was driven less by money rotating into gold and more by shifting investor preferences between risk and safety.
ETF Flows Paint a Different Picture
Perera highlighted spot Bitcoin ETF data to support his argument, noting that investors have not truly abandoned Bitcoin.
Since launching in January 2024, spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted more than $53 billion in net inflows. According to the analyst, this growth happened much faster than gold ETFs, which took roughly five years to reach similar levels.
During the recent market correction, however, Bitcoin ETFs experienced about $4.4 billion in outflows across 13 consecutive trading sessions.
Perera believes those outflows were not driven by investors moving into gold. Instead, he argues the capital shifted toward high growth sectors such as artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks, where investors were chasing strong momentum.
He described these short term investors as highly reactive participants who frequently move capital based on changing market narratives.
According to Perera, Bitcoin has been caught between two opposing market themes.
When investors wanted aggressive growth exposure, capital moved from Bitcoin into AI and chip stocks. When markets turned defensive, money flowed out of Bitcoin and into cash and US Treasuries.
Gold Rotation Story May Be Misunderstood
Perera also challenged the idea that gold benefited directly from Bitcoin’s weakness.
He noted that major gold ETFs saw outflows this year as well. However, rather than moving into Bitcoin, much of that capital simply shifted into lower cost gold products.
In his view, this was largely a fee driven reallocation within gold investments rather than a meaningful move from gold into crypto.
A similar misunderstanding occurred within the crypto market.
Funds tracking XRP and Solana attracted inflows while Bitcoin saw capital leave.
Some interpreted this as a major shift in leadership within crypto, but Perera argued the scale was misleading.
Because XRP and Solana funds operate on asset bases 40 to 50 times smaller than Bitcoin related products, even modest inflows can appear significant on charts while remaining relatively minor in broader market terms.
Debate Over Bitcoin’s Safe Haven Role Continues
Perera’s analysis also focused on Bitcoin’s two distinct investor groups.
The first group consists of short term ETF investors who react quickly to economic reports, inflation data, and broader market sentiment.
The second group is made up of long term holders who continue accumulating during market weakness.
According to Perera, while ETF headlines focused on outflows, long term holders quietly added approximately 125,000 BTC to their holdings. In effect, these investors absorbed the supply being sold by more reactive ETF participants.
The broader debate over Bitcoin’s role as a store of value has intensified this year.
In March, billionaire investor Ray Dalio argued that gold and Bitcoin should not be viewed as direct equivalents, noting that institutions still overwhelmingly prefer gold as a traditional store of value.
Meanwhile, analyst Charlie Bilello offered additional evidence against the rotation narrative.
His research showed that both gold and Bitcoin were trading below their long term trend levels at the same time, suggesting both assets were experiencing weakness simultaneously rather than capital flowing directly from one into the other.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.nethttps://t.me/coinsignalpublic
