Bitcoin Is Macro, but Not ‘Correlated’ in the Way You Think

We tend to use the two terms (macro and correlation) without understanding what they mean. “Bitcoin is correlated!” I often hear that thrown out in conversations as a dismissive way of saying that it isn’t really an “alternative” asset at all

People tend to use the terms “macro” and “correlated” without fully understanding their meanings.

“Bitcoin is correlated!”

I often hear that statement used to quickly dismiss an idea, like a way of saying that bitcoin isn’t really an “alternative” asset at all, and that all this talk about it being separate from the broader economy is just wishful thinking. But very few who say this have actually looked at the data or considered the reasoning behind that claim (which is understandable – why mess with convenient narratives?). I confess that even I used to think that the surge in the correlation between bitcoin (BTC) and the S&P 500 was because the institutional investors marched into the market in the second half of last year. Now I’m not so sure. The institutions did indeed march in, and bitcoin has to a large extent become a macro asset. But I don’t think that’s driving the correlation data.

Noelle Acheson is the former head of research at CoinDesk and sister company Genesis Trading. This article is excerpted from her Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter, which focuses on the overlap between the shifting crypto and macro landscapes. These opinions are hers, and nothing she writes should be taken as investment advice.

Before we start looking at charts that tell a different story, let’s have a think about what correlation actually means, and why we care. In theory, correlation is simply the measure of the degree to which the movements of two series are related. It measures how much two measures vary together, divided by how much they usually vary individually. (There are other types of correlation with different formulas, but that’s too nerdy to get into here – for those who care, I use Pearson on a rolling 60-day window.)

Imagine two assets that are clones of each other. How much they move independently will be exactly the same as how much they move together, so the ratio between the two factors will be 1. A correlation of -1 means they move perfectly in the opposite direction. A correlation of 0 means there is no obvious relationship between the two.

In reality, these “perfect” situations never exist. Correlations are generally a messy amalgam of erratic behavior that indicates strong or weak relationships, used by investors to design relatively robust portfolio strategies and by analysts and storytellers to spot changes in trends.

Yet, one trap many fall into is to treat correlation as a binary condition. To say something “is” correlated is vague and inaccurate. Highly correlated, negatively correlated – those qualifications make sense, yet even then only at a specific point in time. As we will see, when it comes to market relationships, especially concerning an asset as young as bitcoin, things change fast.

Another frequent trap is to assume that a high or low correlation can explain behavior. To some extent this is true – but more often than not, the relationship is coincidental even if related. Ice cream sales and cases of sunburn are highly correlated, but one does not cause or explain the other.

Back to bitcoin. As you can see below, the asset used to be pretty much uncorrelated to the S&P 700 (oscillating around 0) even as the institutions marched in, pushing the BTC price to an all-time high in November. But something changed in April 2022.

What changed? The overall market mood. Correlation is more about the direction than the size of the price moves (although both matter). The below chart shows that, up until the time that the 60-day BTC-S&P 500 correlation had crossed 0 on the way up (never to return?), the two series had sort of been moving in sync but not really. By April 4, the S&P 500 was down 0.7% on the year while BTC was down 7.5%, and the 60 days prior (the snapshot window for the correlation calculation on any given day) showed different trends for each.

What triggered the mood change? Interest rate expectations. Fed funds above 2.50% started to become a remote possibility in terms of market pricing in early April 2022 (when the actual range was 0.25%-0.50%).

This freaked the market out, and the macro investors who piled into the crypto market over the previous nine to 10 months exited in a hurry. They didn’t just exit crypto (a high-risk asset relatively easy to sell), they also exited equities. Prices fell across the board, and the 60-day correlation between bitcoin and the leading stock index rocketed up to an all-time high of 0.72. Macro investors weren’t the only ones de-risking – crypto fund managers were also exiting, expecting a general market slump.

The spike in correlation was not because bitcoin was now a “macro asset” – bitcoin’s entrance to general portfolios had been