Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has renewed his long-running argument that Bitcoin doesn't deserve the "digital gold" label, pointing to its underperformance against precious metals during the recent debasement trade as proof.
U.Today reported that Brooks highlighted gold's roughly 10% rise over a 10-day stretch as evidence of where investors actually go when they want protection from currency debasement. His conclusion was blunt: bitcoin is "NOT a safe haven or store of value the way gold is," and he framed safe-haven status as ultimately "a matter of perception" that Bitcoin has repeatedly failed to earn during periods of real stress.
A Long-Running Critique
This isn't a new position for Brooks. As far back as March 2023 he dismissed Bitcoin as a "bubble asset" with "zero store of value function," and later that year called it a "pointless asset," comparing it to "just another futures contract on the Fed." His latest comments extend that skepticism into 2026's macro environment, where gold has once again outrun Bitcoin during a period when investors are hedging against currency debasement.
The Numbers Behind the Divergence
The gap Brooks points to shows up clearly in this year's price action. Gold touched an all-time high of $5,595 per ounce in late January before pulling back to around $4,705, still leaving it up roughly 65% for the year. Bitcoin, by contrast, crossed $126,000 in October 2025 before retreating into the mid-$70,000s, putting it underwater for 2026 even as gold posted historic gains.
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The divide was starkest during an acute geopolitical shock. When the Iran conflict began on February 27, gold surged 5.2% in the first 48 hours while Bitcoin fell 12% over the same window — a real-time stress test that, for skeptics like Brooks, settled the safe-haven question decisively in gold's favor.
Bitcoin Bulls Push Back
Not everyone agrees with Brooks' framing. Jeff Park of Bitwise countered by pointing to specific periods — March 2020, February 2021, March 2023, September through October 2023, and September 2024 — when Bitcoin rallied through both yield-curve steepening episodes and dedollarization trades, arguing the asset has shown safe-haven behavior in the right macro conditions even if it hasn't done so consistently. The debate echoes a broader argument playing out among Bitcoin's own community about how the asset should respond to market stress, a tension Strategy's own trading moves have highlighted in recent months. For now, the data Brooks cites suggests Bitcoin still trades more like a high-beta risk asset than a crisis hedge, even as bulls argue its debasement-hedge case plays out over years rather than days.
