Bitcoin Bounces Then Falls to $77K as Gold Nears $5K

Bitcoin climbed roughly 7% to above $79,000 from weekend lows near $74,000, only to surrender those gains and fall back to $77,100 — down 2% in 24 hours. Meanwhile, gold is approaching $5,000 per ounce with a 6.5% surge, and silver has rocketed nearly 15% higher. Same market, opposite directions.

Crypto's Failed Recovery

The selloff resumed as U.S. markets opened, with Ethereum faring even worse at $2,260, down 4.7%. The weekend's panic selling clearly left deeper scars than the modest bounce suggested.

Crypto-related stocks joined the decline. MicroStrategy (MSTR), the largest publicly traded bitcoin holder, dropped over 2% to fresh lows. Coinbase (COIN) and Bullish (BLSH) fell similar amounts. Galaxy Digital (GLXY) plunged more than 12% after disappointing fourth-quarter results, while stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) shed another 3.5%.

The bright spot? Bitcoin miners pivoting to AI infrastructure. TeraWulf (WULF) surged 12% after acquiring two U.S. industrial sites that could more than double its power capacity to 2.8 gigawatts. Cipher Mining (CIFR) gained 4% on plans to raise $2 billion in junk bonds for its Texas data center, delivering 300 megawatts under a long-term Amazon Web Services lease.

Precious Metals' Spectacular Return

While crypto stumbled, gold and silver staged a dramatic comeback from Friday's panic. Gold's march toward $5,000 per ounce represents a complete recovery, while silver's 15% single-day surge signals renewed investor appetite for traditional safe havens.

This divergence reflects deeper market psychology. Inflation fears and geopolitical uncertainty are driving investors back to assets with millennia of track records. Silver's particularly strong performance suggests both industrial and investment demand are converging — a powerful combination in commodity markets.

Even AI darlings couldn't escape the risk-off mood. Nvidia (NVDA), Oracle (ORCL), Broadcom (AVGO), Micron (MU), and Microsoft (MSFT) all dropped 3-5%, dragging the Nasdaq down 1%.

Options Market Signals Caution

Wintermute's Jake Ostrovskis sees troubling parallels to April 2025 in options flows. "Traders are bracing for a short-lived bounce off weekend lows, but there's no demand for upside exposure," he explains.

Heavy demand for near-term downside protection has created "backwardation" — where short-dated volatility exceeds longer-dated contracts, an abnormal market structure. "I'm watching for when volatility cools and the options curve normalizes back into contango," Ostrovskis notes. "At that point I'd be more comfortable calling local lows."

The technical setup suggests this bounce might indeed be what traders call a "dead-cat bounce" — a temporary recovery in a falling market that fails to sustain momentum.

The Broader Investment Shift

Beyond individual price movements, today's action reveals a fundamental shift in investor preferences. The simultaneous decline in crypto and AI stocks alongside precious metals' surge suggests a flight from speculative growth toward tangible assets.

This isn't just about bitcoin versus gold — it's about digital innovation versus physical security, future promises versus present certainties. The fact that even established tech giants are selling off indicates investors are reassessing risk across all growth sectors.