Maja Vujinovic

With shaky global markets, geopolitical uncertainty, and a falling dollar, investors are looking for places to protect capital. The speaker argues people instinctively turn to gold because it is long-established and widely understood as a safe asset, so gold tends to be the first destination in periods of heightened uncertainty.

Bitcoin's debasement thesis is intact and institutional confidence is building: Morgan Stanley hiring a head of digital assets is another confident approach to bitcoin. Gold is the hedge people buy when they are scared, while bitcoin is the hedge people buy when they are confident enough to take risk, so bitcoin's failure to rally reflects risk appetite rather than a broken debasement story. ETF flows still reflect positioning, and younger investors are going into bitcoin and land rather than gold, with gold first and bitcoin following as risk appetite returns.