Gold is still putting too much pressure on the crypto market.

Around January 21, spot gold once approached $4,888/oz, having risen about 64% in 2025,

and has risen about 10% since the beginning of 2026, with institutions raising their target price for the end of 2026,

Goldman Sachs even raised gold to $5,400/oz.

As gold has nearly completely consumed the macro hedging and de-dollarization narrative of cryptocurrencies,

it has led to crypto being locked into the development along the liquidity and regulatory channel (ETF).

At the same time, according to last week's data, U.S. stock funds saw a net inflow of $28.18 billion, bond funds a net inflow of $10.12 billion, and money market funds experienced a net outflow of $75.72 billion, indicating to the market that cash is now flowing toward risk assets.

Liquidity hedges on one side, while investing on the other.

BTC and ETH have indeed seen inflows, with BTC net inflow of $1.9 billion and ETH net inflow of $246 million last week, but Solana, which is supported and developed by crypto applications, saw a net outflow of 6.9 million.

Another issue is that after regulation stepped in, the myth of rapid wealth in crypto is quickly disappearing,

the narrative of universal faith, crypto changing the world, and high returns with high multiples is also rapidly fading,

as regulation continues, the market will increasingly resemble an ordinary high-volatility risk asset, no longer the myth of instant wealth from crypto for everyone.

As previously mentioned, in the future, more money entering the crypto market will flow through ETFs and other paths accepted by institutions, and the influx of funds seeking high-multiple altcoins is unlikely to reappear; this part of the capital has either been harvested and exited or has been severely wounded after these two cycles.

The next turning point for crypto may be BTC catching up, as at least the hedging trend caused by policies and formats related to gold cannot remain strong indefinitely; as risk assets catch up, the crypto market will quickly regain vitality.