Bitcoin bull and Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) Chairman Michael Saylor has responded to Barstool’s Dave Portnoy, who asked a question on X: Why does Bitcoin seem to move exactly like the U.S. stock market?
Portnoy wrote, “If the point of Bitcoin is to be independent of the US Dollar and non-regulated, why does it basically trade exactly like the US stock market nowadays? Market up, Bitcoin up. Market down, Bitcoin down.”
Saylor replied, “Bitcoin trades like a risk asset short term because it’s the most liquid, salable, 24/7 asset on Earth. In times of panic, traders sell what they can, not what they want to.”
He added, “Bitcoin is most volatile because it is most useful.”
His response came right as global markets were reeling from President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs announced on April 2, dubbed “Liberation Day.” Trump imposed a blanket 10% tariff on all imports — with higher rates like 26% for India and 34% for China — claiming it would restore U.S. industry.
The market didn’t share that optimism. On April 3, the S&P 500 index fell 3.74% to 5,461.44, the Nasdaq dropped 4.94% to 16,731.06, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 3.19% to 40,880. Even safe haven assets like gold dipped. And yes — Bitcoin fell too.
Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), which holds more Bitcoin than any other public company, was down 7.71% to $288.44, showing how sensitive even crypto-linked equities are to macro shocks.
Just days earlier, Saylor had announced a massive Bitcoin buy, 22,048 BTC acquired between March 24 and March 30, for a total of $1.92 billion at an average price of $86,969 per coin. Strategy now holds 528,185 BTC — worth about $35.63 billion — purchased at an average cost of $67,458.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $82,632.57, up 0.9% on the day, per Kraken.
So, does Bitcoin move like stocks? Sometimes. But as Saylor reminds us, that may say more about human behavior than the asset itself.
