Is Crypto a Diversifier? A Correlation Matrix for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gold and Stocks
2026-10-08
Two assets that move together do not diversify each other. The Correlation Matrix measures how closely 2 to 8 assets move day to day, over the whole window and over the most recent 90 days, so you can see both the long-run picture and any recent shift.
Four assets since January 2021
| Pair | All time | Last 90 days |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin / Ethereum | 0.81 | 0.88 |
| Ethereum / S&P 500 | 0.39 | 0.42 |
| Bitcoin / S&P 500 | 0.38 | 0.40 |
| Gold / S&P 500 | 0.11 | 0.40 |
| Ethereum / Gold | 0.08 | 0.48 |
| Bitcoin / Gold | 0.08 | 0.50 |
The average pairwise correlation was 0.31 over 1,446 common trading days. Bitcoin and Ethereum are close to one asset for diversification purposes. Over the full window gold was the best diversifier for Bitcoin at 0.08, but over the last 90 days that figure rose to 0.50. A diversifier that works on average can stop working in a particular period, which is why the tool shows both.
How it is computed
Assets are aligned on days when all of them have a close, so crypto weekends drop out when a stock or index is included. Correlation is measured on daily returns, not prices, because prices that both trend up look correlated even when their daily moves are unrelated. Ninety days is a short window and noisy: treat a shift as a prompt to look closer, not as a regime change.
Limits
Correlation measures how often two assets move in the same direction on a day, not how much they fall together in a crash. Correlations tend to rise in sell-offs. Use the Portfolio Mix tool to see what a combination did to drawdowns. API: /api/lab/correlation?assets=bitcoin,ethereum,gold,sp500&from=2021-01-01.
Pricing and limits
Hindsight runs cost $0.002 in account credits, or come from the monthly plan allowance. A few free anonymous samples are offered each day, and a result someone has already computed is free to view for ten minutes. Spend caps apply to every account.
Numbers come from the BitBank Hindsight Lab on daily closes (Yahoo Finance), retrieved 8 October 2026. They are history, not a forecast, and price only: no dividends, fees or tax.