Gold and silver lost more than $550 billion in combined value in a matter of hours on Sept. 28 as bond yields climbed, and bitcoin slid alongside the metals instead of acting as a refuge. Comex gold and silver both fell sharply, an Iran war warning pushed money into oil rather than gold, and bitcoin dropped to $82,780 before recovering above $83,000.
Gold and silver shed more than $550 billion in combined value over a three-hour stretch on Sept. 28, as bond yields rose and rate hike bets built. Bitcoin moved with the metals instead of against them, leaving its safe-haven pitch without the rotation into crypto it depends on.
Metals Slide as Yields Climb
The losses started in the Asian session, where gold slipped 1.55%, wiping out about $470 billion in value. Silver fell 2.75% in the same window, erasing roughly $101 billion.
By mid-morning in India, Comex gold futures were down 2.11% at $4,197.40 an ounce. Silver had dropped 3.59% to $62.47 over the same stretch. That leaves gold nearly 25% below its record near $5,590, set on Jan. 28.
A War Warning That Sent Traders Into Oil, Not Gold
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is ready for a "doomsday" war if attacked. The comments came after reports that President Trump was weighing renewed airstrikes on Iran after the midterm elections.
But the escalation risk flowed into oil rather than metals, as Brent crude climbed 2.52% to $107 a barrel, which feeds inflation expectations. Inflation, in turn, feeds rate expectations, and the CME Fedwatch tool showed a 68.1% probability of a 25 basis point Fed hike in October.
The U.S. Dollar Index hit a two-month high of 101.39. Ten-year and 30-year Treasury yields sat at 5.20% and 5.51%. Peter Schiff attributed the drop to rising bond yields, writing: "Gold and silver are being dragged down by rising bond yields."
Bitcoin's Safe-Haven Pitch Falls Short
Bitcoin slid to an intraday low of $82,780, a 2.7% drop over the same hours metals were losing value. At press time, bitcoin was trading above $83,000.
Tokenized gold saw the same pressure, as PAX Gold fell from roughly $4,276 to $4,186 across the session, so crypto traders holding gold onchain took the same hit as futures traders.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $2.39 billion last week, the biggest weekly haul of 2026. Bitcoin had climbed back toward $85,000 over the weekend, but the rally didn't survive once yields rose.
Bitwise has flagged this pattern: institutions treat bitcoin as gold-like in theory but allocate to it like a tech stock, so when yields climb and both gold and growth assets lose appeal, bitcoin moves with the tech-stock group.
Source: Bitcoin.com News
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