TL;DR:
- Gold’s correlation with the S&P 500 index surged to over 0.50 in recent months.
- Bitcoin’s historical correlation coefficient with the stock market traditionally remained below 0.15.
- Bitcoin’s correlation with equities climbed to a level of 0.55 between late 2025 and early 2026.
Economist Robin Brooks stated that gold has lost its historical status as a safe-haven asset due to a structural shift in its financial behavior.
The correlation of gold with the S&P 500 is now the same as bitcoin. It used to be that gold was uncorrelated with swings in risk appetite and in the S&P 500, but those days are over. These days gold trades like a high-beta asset. Safe haven no more…https://t.co/QFGBrFMbKSpic.twitter.com/Es1Ir2mO0M
— Robin Brooks (@robin_j_brooks) June 5, 2026
The End of Gold’s Traditional Non-Correlation
The analyst declared that the precious metal currently trades as a pro-cyclical, high-beta asset. This dynamic closely mirrors the fluctuations observed in risk markets such as Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index. The statistical data provided in his report indicates that gold’s behavior, formally characterized by a zero correlation with shifts in global risk appetite, has come to an end.
Typically, the yellow metal recorded a correlation near zero with the U.S. stock market. However, during the peak of the so-called “currency debasement trade”—which occurred between late 2025 and early 2026—the metrics underwent a drastic transformation. Bitcoin’s correlation with equities rapidly climbed toward 0.55, while gold began a measurable upward trend in its own mathematical correlation levels.
Technical analysis details that gold’s correlation with the S&P 500 advanced substantially to match Bitcoin’s performance precisely. According to Robin Brooks’ view, this convergence is unprecedented in modern financial records. The asset trades downward simultaneously with stocks when risk aversion increases across global markets. Observations from the source suggest that this behavior represents a phenomenon opposite to the protective function of a traditional store of value.
New Investor Profiles Reshape the Market
The research links this alteration to a permanent expansion in the metal’s investor base. The widespread increase in the asset’s prices over the past year mechanically expanded the balance sheets of global central banks. However, official documentation provided by Brooks rules out the existence of a massive wave of institutional buying or a sudden abandonment of the use of the U.S. dollar.
On the contrary, marketing campaigns focused on fiat currency depreciation during the second half of 2025 attracted a massive influx of retail capital into gold. Macroeconomic data shows that these new buyers possess a fundamentally more volatile and pro-cyclical profile than traditional bullion holders.
Although it was initially estimated that this strong correlation with equities would decrease following the corresponding market corrections, the most recent data suggests that gold’s internal pricing mechanics suffered a persistent structural modification.
Monitoring capital flows across major commodity and crypto-asset trading platforms will serve as the next verifiable milestone to assess the persistence of this high correlation throughout the remainder of 2026.