BlackRock’s digital assets chief says Bitcoin’s recent struggle for momentum is tied less to crypto-specific weakness than to a broader market rotation toward artificial intelligence. In a Yahoo Finance interview, Robbie Mitchnick, Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock, said AI-linked investing has absorbed attention and capital from assets outside that theme, including Bitcoin, gold and precious metals.
BlackRock Says AI Trade Is Squeezing Bitcoin
Robbie Mitchnick framed Bitcoin’s softer performance as part of a wider market pattern affecting assets that are not directly connected to the AI investment boom. His comments place crypto alongside other macro-sensitive stores of value, rather than treating Bitcoin’s recent pressure as an isolated digital-asset event.
“It’s been a tough stretch for Bitcoin since last October for all of crypto, and that’s consistent in many ways with just about everything that is not AI-centric. The AI momentum is certainly sucking a lot of the oxygen out of the room, so you see some of the same impact on gold, precious metals, and other asset types that are not core to the AI trade of late. There is some pause in some of that momentum from people being focused on upping their allocation to AI-centric things, and we’ll see how this evolves.”
For crypto-native investors, the point is less that AI and Bitcoin are direct competitors, and more that institutional portfolios have limited bandwidth and capital allocation capacity. When one theme dominates market narratives, other trades can see reduced attention even if their underlying investment theses remain intact. Mitchnick’s comparison with gold is notable because Bitcoin is often analyzed by allocators through a similar macro lens: scarcity, liquidity conditions, real rates and concerns over fiat debasement.
BlackRock’s role in the market gives the remarks added weight. As one of the world’s largest asset managers and a major participant in the institutionalization of crypto exposure, BlackRock’s digital-assets commentary is closely watched by traders and fund managers. Mitchnick did not suggest that AI has permanently displaced Bitcoin, but he said the current allocation environment has contributed to a pause in momentum for assets outside the AI-centered trade.
Debt and Rates May Drive Bitcoin’s Next Move
Mitchnick said the next major catalyst for Bitcoin may come from renewed attention on U.S. fiscal conditions, especially debt levels and deficits. He linked that potential shift to broader political and economic debates that could return to the foreground around the midterm election cycle, while also identifying interest rates as a central variable for Bitcoin’s path.
“I think certainly if we start to see U.S. debt levels and the deficit situation come back into focus, fairly likely to happen around the midterms, some of the existential discussions that are going to happen, I think that we’ll start to see probably a renewal in that momentum. It’s very much the most important driver that we’re going to see in the next year or so alongside what’s going to happen with interest rates, right? Obviously, a lot of what drives this, similar to gold, is interest rates.”
His comments highlight a familiar tension for Bitcoin markets. Lower or falling rates can improve the relative appeal of non-yielding assets, while higher rates can pressure them by making cash and fixed-income instruments more attractive. Mitchnick described Bitcoin as “negatively exposed to rates,” aligning it with gold in that respect, while emphasizing that fiscal concerns may ultimately become the more powerful driver if investors grow more focused on borrowing, deficits and monetary expansion.
“Bitcoin is negatively exposed to rates, but the fiscal situation, which we talk a lot about the U.S. for some reason, that situation has become perhaps more acute even as the amount of oxygen that it gets in the conversation has gone down temporarily, but that’s going to come back because it’s fundamentally a really important question that doesn’t have a clear answer today. And the more fear there is over the borrowing level and the risk of money printing, that is ultimately the most important, I think, fundamental driver ahead.”
Mitchnick’s assessment puts Bitcoin at the intersection of two competing macro narratives: a near-term market captivated by AI and a longer-term fiscal debate that may revive demand for scarce, non-sovereign assets. For now, BlackRock’s view is that AI has taken attention away from Bitcoin, but debt, deficits and interest rates remain the variables most likely to shape the next phase of institutional demand.
AI Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI system based on the sources listed and was reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. All quotes, data points, and factual claims are intended to be grounded in the cited source material; however, errors cannot be ruled out entirely.
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