Hard Money Dispatch 3/28/26: BTC Remains Resilient Amid Turmoil

Bitcoin is up almost 20% vs gold since the Iran war began, as of Friday’s close:

Earlier in the week, BTC/XAU was up 35%.

Of course, part of this timing may be coincidental: precious metals have become overbought while bitcoin was oversold. A correction for gold was overdue, as was a bounce for bitcoin.

At the time of writing, BTC/USD has fallen back to ~$67k.

Still, it’s interesting and unexpected that bitcoin would rally while gold fell during a crisis. Usually, the exact opposite would happen: people would sell what they perceive to be risk assets like BTC and rotate into safer alternatives like gold and bonds.

But bonds have also sold off. US Treasuries, considered to be the safest asset in the world, have not caught a bid. Yields have been rising across the board (meaning bond prices are falling).

Over the same timeframe, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury has risen by nearly 50 basis points.

This is concerning because it shows investors are losing faith in US debt – they’re demanding higher yields in exchange for holding an asset seen as getting riskier all the time. Skyrocketing national debt and fighting endless wars doesn’t bode well for the future of the US economy. Bond prices also fall when inflation expectations rise – something that is all but certain with the current oil market disruptions.

If yields continue rising, the situation could require central bank intervention at some point. If the Fed has to print more Federal Reserve Notes (USD) to buy US debt, that could lead to even more inflation than we’re already seeing.

Given the situation, it makes sense that BTC/USD would hold up rather than break down. There’s simply nowhere else to go.

Even betting on rising oil prices isn’t the surefire win you might expect. A single headline, whether true or not, can move the market 20% before it’s even opened. During the first week of this war, oil futures rose to over $120 in the pre-market, only to fall to around 90 by the close.

Markets outside of bitcoin right now feel a lot like bitcoin and crypto in 2017.

The Dow has officially entered a correction, and most assets are demonstrating extreme volatility. The VIX (volatility index) is at its highest level since the tariff shock of April of 2025.

It’s ironic that after all these years of being criticized for being too volatile, BTC now appears to be one of the safest, least volatile asset around. It makes sense: if everything else has become volatile, then due to its non-correlation, BTC should become less volatile.

It’s often said that “Bitcoin trades like a tech stock,” and that it’s basically the same as holding QQQ, an index fund that tracks that top 100 companies in the NASDAQ.

While this is, in fact, the highest correlation bitcoin has to any other asset, it misses the point and paints an incomplete picture.

This table from Fidelity elegantly shows how BTC actually correlates to other assets:

US stocks have the highest correlation to bitcoin at 0.33. But US high-yield corporate bonds are right behind at 0.30. It’s interesting to note that no one ever says “BTC trades like a high-yield corporate bond.”

The above table was shared by a CFA who works for Fidelity, in a report where he described not having an allocation to bitcoin as requiring good justification.

The first test launch of BIP-360 has been released on a bitcoin testnet. The proposed update obfuscates public key addresses, meaning quantum computers would be unable to hack wallets by decrypting ECDSA, the encryption that protects bitcoin wallets. To do so, the public key is needed to derive the private key. BIP-360 eliminates this theoretical vulnerability.

Bitcoin has always evolved in response to credible threats, not hypothetical headlines. While I believe the quantum threat is still decades away, it will become reality at some point, so might as well start preparing for it now.

By obfuscating public keys until they are actually needed, it reduces the already narrow window in which a quantum-capable attacker could even attempt something meaningful. In other words, it turns a theoretical vulnerability into something even less practical, without disrupting the core principles that make Bitcoin valuable in the first place.

The network has a long history of adapting carefully, deliberately, and in the open. While narratives about quantum threats tend to assume a passive system waiting to be broken, the reality is the opposite. Those building and maintaining Bitcoin are aware of these vectors long before they become urgent, and they address them in ways that prioritize long-term resilience over short-term noise.

By the way, I recently made a video exposing the ulterior motives behind some people who push constant fear-mongering about bitcoin’s alleged vulnerability to quantum computers. Watch it now to learn about the monetary motivations behind this FUD narrative:

Gil Roberts will be returning to the Hard Money Dispatch podcast next month to discuss the official rollout of the Bitcoin Commons node software, an alternative to Core and Knots.

Personally, I can’t wait to run Commons on my node. I’m currently running Core v29.

To have a say in where the network heads next, you must run your own node. If you have substantial holdings or want to be an active participant in the network, then running a node should be mandatory. It’s low-cost, simple, and helps maintain Bitcoin’s decentralization.

In my coming course and community on self-custody and Bitcoin basics, I’ll include a module on how to run your own node. It will be pretty short, as the process can be as simple as downloading a program onto an old laptop and making a few clicks.

On this episode of Hard Money Dispatch, I sat down with Rowland Hobbes, CEO and co-founder of Stake. It was quite interesting. Paying rent can now help people build wealth.

I’m a firm believer that for most people who aren’t raising a family and are making less than $200k/yr (and even some who are doing both), buying a home can often become a crippling financial decision. The costs of maintenance, repairs, insurance, natural disasters, and property taxes seldom factor in to most people’s budget when considering what they can afford. I’ve known several people personally who have been financially decimated after facing an unexpected, massive maintenance expense alone.

At the same time, renting builds no equity, and rents tend to increase annually.

A few takeaways from this episode:

• Renters are getting squeezed—saving feels harder than ever
• New models are emerging where rent earns cash back and rewards
• Loyalty systems are entering housing for the first time
• And we may be heading toward a new financial layer around rent itself

It’s less about one company, and more about a shift in how we think about renting.

From pure expense → to participation.

We’re early. But it’s worth paying attention.

🎧 Listen to the full episode through the links below:

Fountain: https://fountain.fm/studio/l7idPk17pb1lEbcOR9Il/m1qEmiITK7kwhH4MVqTG

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5uR1bxDY9Ng3pAYptWfj1C

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-rent-payments-to-return-streams-building-wealth/id1649814816?i=1000756845373

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vio1QohRtcA

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To your sovereignty and prosperity,