Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine, stated in a January 20 interview on The Master Investor Podcast that a significant deleveraging event on October 10 severely impacted the market-making system, causing Bitcoin and Ethereum to decouple from gold. Prior to this, crypto assets had outperformed gold until October. Lee maintains that Bitcoin remains digital gold, but anticipates a highly volatile adoption path for cryptocurrencies, with 2026 potentially being a critical validation point.