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Morning Edition · Friday, September 18, 2026Published at 1:18 AM EDT · New York
Bitcoin holds above $77,000 after the Bank of Japan hike while ether and XRP funds lose money
Gold is trading near $4,310 an ounce after this week's central bank decisions, and bitcoin remains roughly 39 percent below the level it reached in October 2025.
Bitcoin moved above $77,000 after the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate to 1.25 percent and the yen weakened, CoinDesk reported. Asian equity indices also opened higher, according to Globes, and bitcoin's price moved in the same direction rather than diverging from them.
Fund flows moved in the opposite direction from prices. Exchange-traded funds holding ether lost money for a third consecutive session even as the token itself rose, and funds holding XRP also recorded outflows, while zcash continued to rise, CoinDesk said. Investors are reducing exposure through the regulated funds at the same time spot buyers are pushing prices up.
Comparing the two assets often described as hard money makes the divergence clear. Gold traded at about $4,310.80 an ounce, up 1.12 percent in the latest session, after the Federal Reserve raised rates on Wednesday and the Bank of Japan followed on Friday. Bitcoin at $77,000 is roughly 39 percent below the level near $126,000 it reached in early October 2025, and it has repeatedly failed to break above the low $80,000s throughout September.
This divergence has persisted through an oil shock, the Gulf war and two central bank rate increases. Gold has absorbed the demand for protection against currency debasement, while bitcoin has behaved like a liquidity-sensitive asset whose price depends on funding conditions. Tighter policy in both Washington and Tokyo is removing cheap funding, and that is exactly the environment in which describing bitcoin as digital gold has not matched its actual price behaviour.
Part of a tracked trend
Bitcoin Trades as a Risk Asset, Not Digital Gold
At each geopolitical or inflationary stress point, bitcoin keeps trading with liquidity-sensitive risk assets rather than with monetary metals, so the digital-gold framing continues to fail exactly when investors most want it to hold.
What this means
Investors buying bitcoin as protection against currency debasement are instead holding an asset that tracks global liquidity. With the Federal Reserve at 3.75 to 4.00 percent and the Bank of Japan ending the cheapest funding source in the world, leveraged crypto positions face higher borrowing costs, which limits how far rallies can extend. Gold is absorbing the reserve-diversification demand instead, so the two assets are responding to different buyers and will likely keep moving apart under stress.
What to watch
- Whether bitcoin exchange-traded funds join ether and XRP funds in sustained outflows, which would show institutional allocators, not retail traders, setting the direction.
- The gold-to-bitcoin performance gap through the next Federal Reserve meeting, the cleanest read on whether liquidity or debasement hedging dominates.
- Yen funding costs after the Bank of Japan hike, since carry trades financed in yen have been a source of speculative capital for crypto markets.
Observations to monitor, not financial advice.
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More from this edition
- Bank of Japan lifts its policy rate to 1.25 percent, the highest since 1993
- Trump says he is close to deciding whether to "annihilate" Iran's government as a second tanker is hit in Hormuz
- Venezuela nears agreement to move $4 billion of gold reserves to New York
- American inflation runs at 3.4 percent with petrol up 27 percent as the Fed tightens into an energy shock
- Russia and China veto the United Nations panel that monitors Iran sanctions
- Washington clears a $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia
- At least eight NATO members start buying defence equipment outside the United States
Comments
1Sep 18, 5:18 AM · edited
Bitcoin moving in the same direction as Asian equity indices signals it is behaving as a correlated risk asset rather than an uncorrelated store of value, implying any equity reversal would likely drag it lower.