Decoupling from China is impossible, and the US cannot export control its way out of competition, notes #CondoleezzaRice#, former US Secretary of State and now Co-Chair of the #AspenStrategyGroup#.

JUST IN: Bitcoin is decoupling from NASDAQ and now closely correlating with gold, Grayscale reports. 👀 "Rising debt, persistent deficits, and higher yields are pushing investors toward alternatives like Bitcoin and gold." ✊

This is very Unusual. We saw crazy decoupling this week with crypto and stocks going in completely opposite directions. Total Crypto market cap is up +13% after adding $291 billion. Meanwhile US stocks erased -$1.4 Trillion in the same period with S&P 500 falling -1.83%.

I think export controls were dumb and did lead to a decoupling in advanced semiconductors that the US will very possibly regret (more) in a decade. But let's not pretend for one second that Huawei wasn't going to go after semiconductors in a big way. Do you guys even know this company and their ambition, paranoia (of becoming obsolete) and capabilities? You think they really were just going to sit there and let Nvidia and friends run the world, especially once it was obvious how AI is going to transform everything? I mean, come on guys. These guys are not afraid of doing the work. They will do 100, 1000 times the work if they have to. They're not afraid of reinventing themselves. They're not afraid of change. They're only afraid of missing out.

A CoinShares report this week points to a quiet decoupling. From Q2 2025 to Q2 2026, total DeFi deposits fell ~15%. Over the same window, RWA deposits in lending and DEX protocols rose from $2.3B to $7.4B, more than 3x, while RWA spot volume climbed ~220%. RWA demand is starting to move on its own logic, driven by real yield and utility rather than the crypto cycle.

LATEST: 📈 BlackRock's Robert Mitchnick says Bitcoin decoupling from equities is "healthy," noting its outperformance during July's AI pullback validates its role as a "diversifier and potentially a hedge."