Gold, Silver Melting Faces: Is Bitcoin USD Next Despite Hash Rate Dropping 32%?
Gold, silver, and pretty much all precious metals are exceeding expectations, melting faces. This week, gold printed fresh all-time highs, soaring to as high as $5,100. Meanwhile, silver broke $100, pushing to as high as $110.
During this time, however, Bitcoin USD price struggled for momentum. If anything, sellers had an upper hand, sliding to as low as $86,100 before recovering on Monday. Although the Bitcoin USD price is back in green, traders need to see more conviction. This leg up could be triggered by gold reclaiming $5,100, and the world flocking back to the yellow metal as they move away from fiat.
While “hopium” is high, and the trading community expects the digital gold to also lift some of the best meme coins to buy, fundamental analysts are watching how the network behaves as winter bites in the US.
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Gold and Silver Are Parabolic: Will This Metal Inferno Continue?
How fast gold and silver perform in the coming weeks will largely depend on geopolitics. Greenland and the EU are at the center of it all, and as eye-watering number flows out of the precious metal trading pit, traders expect this uptick to lift other markets as well.
Gold has shattered the psychological $5,000 barrier, trading to as high as $5,100 after a brief “flash crash” yesterday that saw $1.7 trillion in value temporarily vanish before being instantly bought back. Silver is the undisputed king of the 12-month rally, up a staggering +260% to rest at $110. Meanwhile, Platinum has joined the fray, up +175% over the last year as investors flee a weakening USD and hedge against a possible government shutdown by the end of the month.
The driver of this rally is clear: A “crisis of confidence.” With US national debt soaring past $37T and trade tensions escalating over proposed Greenland tariffs, the market is choosing physical permanence offered by precious metals over digital volatility of paper currencies and stocks.
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Bitcoin USD Price At Cross Roads, Hash Rate Down 32%
Amid this, Bitcoin sits at a critical crossroads, grappling with a massive network power drawdown and a temporary decoupling from its “digital gold” narrative. What’s more worrying is that while gold and silver are ripping higher, the Bitcoin USD price is stuck in a narrow range. Critics argue that Bitcoin has failed as a debasement hedge, pointing to the -17% sell-off over the last year while gold rose by over +80%.
Are you paying attention? Gold is up ~80% in one year, Platinum up 175%, and Silver up an eye-watering 200%+ in ONE year. The debasement trade is not just on, it is ripping people’s faces off. And so, the next question is not “if”, but “when” does Bitcoin resume higher? pic.twitter.com/4fBKMduisy
— James Lavish (@jameslavish) January 22, 2026
While this could be plausible, one analyst notes that data shows that Bitcoin is “only second” to silver in the debasement trade over the last five years. He also added that historical BTC-gold ratio data reveals that the digital gold is currently undervalued and could, in the next few weeks, reprice higher.
Every major crypto bull market starts the same way:
Gold runs first.
Then Bitcoin.
Then Alts outperform everything.2017: Gold +30% → BTC +1,900% → Alts 10x–50x
2021: Gold +40% → BTC +600% → Alts outperformed BTC
Gold is still running.
Crypto hasn’t even started.We know… pic.twitter.com/68WMOzo89S
— Mark (@markchadwickx) January 23, 2026
In preparation for a possible rally, the big boys are doubling down. MicroStrategy has poured over $1.3Bn in BTC in January 2026 alone. Others, including MetaPlanet, have been accumulating not to hedge but to “get in” earlier.
As the Bitcoin USD price tethers around $90,000, the network is being “attacked”, not by hackers, but by the weather. In the US, Winter Storm Fern has forced a historic curtailment of mining operations.
Bitcoin mining companies cut production amid a U.S. winter storm. Hashrate is down 32% over the past three days. https://t.co/PBRriDVAT7 pic.twitter.com/9t9KxOZl12
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) January 26, 2026
In response, on-chain data reveals that the Bitcoin hash rate, which measures computing power securing the network, is down -32%. Top Bitcoin and crypto miners, including MARA and Riot, have slashed output to support a struggling energy grid. Due to the reduced hash rate, MARA holdings are now mining around seven BTC every day, down from 45 BTC. Meanwhile, Riot now averages 3BTC, down from around 12BTC.
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