Bitcoin's Disconnect From Stocks Seen as Temporary

Bitcoin's lackluster performance this year has puzzled investors despite record highs in equities. The world's largest cryptocurrency currently trades just below $62,000, down over 50% from its peak price in October.

Researchers at Hashdex and Charles Schwab argue the disconnect is temporary. Samir Kerbage, chief investment officer at Hashdex, attributes crypto's recent weakness to a rotation of capital towards AI infrastructure plays, IPO pipelines, and macro positioning around rate expectations.

Kerbage notes that institutional infrastructure is expanding across banks, brokers, and payment providers, while regulatory clarity in the U.S. has improved and could strengthen further if Congress passes the CLARITY Act this summer.

Meanwhile, crypto's underlying usage continues to grow, with stablecoin transaction volume exceeding all of 2025, tokenized real-world assets growing more than 60% year-to-date, and crypto ecosystem transactions reaching record highs during the second quarter.