Fidelity’s Timmer Shows Bitcoin Sitting Near the Bottom With Gold and Bonds
Fidelity Investments’ Jurrien Timmer shared an updated version of the firm’s “Periodic Table of Investment Returns, ” and Bitcoin does not look great in it. In the version Timmer posted, Bitcoin sits near the bottom alongside gold and long-term bonds, while emerging markets, small-cap equities, and Japanese markets sit at the top.
- Bitcoin is weak versus many liquid assets
- Gold and long-term bonds are weak too
- Emerging markets, small caps, and Japan are leading
- “Fast money” appears to be skipping hard assets for now
Timmer, Fidelity Investments’ director of global macro, posted the table on X.com as part of Fidelity’s long-running Periodic Table of Investment Returns framework. The visual ranks asset classes by performance over a given period. It is a clean way to show what worked and what got tossed in the dumpster, but it is still a snapshot, not a prophecy.
The point of the chart is simple: some assets are outperforming, and some are getting hit. In this layout, the beaten-down names include [Bitcoin](https://u.today/fidelity-bitcoin-at-very-bottom-with-gold), [spot gold](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jurrien-timmer-fidelity_the-periodic-table-below-which-shows-rolling-activity-7387231353437650945-LSLX), and long-term treasuries. That matters because these three are usually discussed as different flavors of defense. Bitcoin is the speculative hard-money bet. Gold is the traditional store of value. Long-term Treasuries are the classic duration hedge when recession fear starts creeping in.
Seeing all three near the bottom suggests the market is rewarding something else right now, and it is not being sentimental about old hedges or shiny narratives.
That does not mean Bitcoin’s long-term case is broken. It means Bitcoin is having a rough relative run versus other liquid assets. Those are different things, and mixing them up is how people end up buying tops and selling bottoms like it’s a hobby.
Timmer has also highlighted the Bitcoin-versus-gold comparison directly. In a LinkedIn post titled “Gold and Bitcoin: A Unique Portfolio Diversification Strategy”, he wrote that gold is outperforming Bitcoin by 4.5x year to date and said the BTC/gold ratio has been “seemingly unchanged since the US election last year.”
That is a blunt reminder that, despite the “digital gold” branding, Bitcoin and gold still behave very differently. Gold tends to move with inflation expectations, real yields, and geopolitical stress. Bitcoin often behaves more like a high-beta macro asset. In plain English, it can rip higher when risk appetite is strong and get smacked harder when liquidity tightens or traders lose nerve.
So when Bitcoin and gold are both lagging in the same table, the message is not subtle. It suggests short-term capital has more interest in select equity exposures than in hard assets or defensive duration. Emerging markets, small caps, and Japanese markets are the names sitting at the top, which points to a rotation toward parts of the market that are either cheaper, more cyclical, or benefiting from investor optimism about policy and growth.
The weak showing in long-term Treasuries is especially telling. Long bonds usually gain favor when growth scares rise or when investors want protection from a slowdown. If they are weak too, that can signal pressure from rates, inflation expectations, or a broad preference for riskier bets over safety. In other words: the market is not making a polite, diversified statement. It is picking favorites and ignoring the rest.
There is one important caveat here. A single performance table does not prove a permanent rotation away from Bitcoin or gold. It shows relative underperformance over the period represented. That may be enough for traders to sulk and move on, but it is not the same thing as a structural verdict on either asset.
“Fast money has now abandoned both Bitcoin and gold.”
That line, attributed to Timmer in a previous [U.Today report](https://www.tradingview.com/news/u_today:8ed92b636094b:0-fidelity-bitcoin-winning-back-gold-investors/), captures the near-term mood well enough. “Fast money” usually means short-term, momentum-driven capital. The crowd chases price action and exits quickly when the trade stops working. If that capital is stepping away, the near-term bid can get thinner and rallies can feel more fragile.
Still, the bigger picture is not as dramatic as the headline bait would like. Bitcoin is not trying to be a replacement for gold so much as a different kind of monetary asset altogether: digitally native, fixed in supply, censorship-resistant, and settled without asking permission from a central bank or a bureaucratic committee with a taste for inflation.
Gold, meanwhile, remains the old monster in the room. It is not flashy, it is not programmable, and it does not need a whitepaper to justify its place in portfolios. It also has centuries of credibility that Bitcoin simply cannot match yet. That does not make gold automatically superior. It just makes the comparison less childish than the usual “Bitcoin kills gold” or “Bitcoin is useless” shouting match.
The most useful takeaway from Timmer’s table is not that Bitcoin is doomed. It is that the market currently prefers other trades. That can change quickly. It can also last longer than anyone who is overlevered would like. Markets are annoyingly indifferent to our narratives.
Key questions and quick answers
-
What does Fidelity’s “Periodic Table of Investment Returns” show?
It ranks asset classes by performance over a specific period. It is a visual scoreboard, not a forecast model. -
Where does Bitcoin stand in Timmer’s update?
Bitcoin is shown near the bottom of the performance rankings, alongside gold and long-term bonds. -
Why does gold being weak matter?
Gold is usually treated as a defensive store of value. If it is weak at the same time as Bitcoin, that suggests pressure on hard-asset trades more broadly. -
What does “fast money” mean?
It refers to short-term, momentum-driven capital that moves quickly in and out of trades. If that crowd leaves, near-term price support can get weaker. -
Does this kill the Bitcoin thesis?
No. Weak relative performance is not the same as a failed long-term case. Bitcoin’s bull case rests on scarcity, settlement independence, and monetary resistance, not on winning every short-term rotation. -
Why are emerging markets, small caps, and Japan at the top?
Those areas appear to be where capital is rewarding risk and select valuations right now. The table suggests investors are favoring equities over hard assets and duration. -
How should Bitcoin and gold be viewed together?
They can both serve as portfolio diversifiers, but they are not the same trade. Gold is the legacy store of value; Bitcoin is the software-native one.
The market is not handing out comfort prizes. Bitcoin is bruised, gold is not shining, and long-term bonds are not doing their usual safety dance. That is not a verdict on the future of money. It is a reminder that right now, capital is elsewhere.
Further Reading
A few related resources worth keeping on the radar for a deeper look at Bitcoin, gold, and portfolio positioning.
- Fidelity’s Global Macro View with Jurrien Timmer
- Fidelity Q2 2025 Market Update PDF
- Understanding Bitcoin’s Impact on Your Portfolio
- Digital Gold Currency
- Fidelity’s Timmer Says Bitcoin May Be Building a Base for the Next Major Move Higher
- Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson Backs Bitcoin, Calls It Crypto’s Gold Standard
- JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Is Gaining on Gold in the Debasement Trade
