Robin Brooks renewed his criticism of Bitcoin's role as a safe-haven asset, arguing its performance during the debasement trade (a market bet that currency dilution lifts hard assets) shows it has not behaved like digital gold. The senior fellow at the Brookings Institution said Bitcoin "isn't part of the debasement trade" and has "consistently underperformed precious metals" during the period, which he said weakens the case for BTC as a dependable hedge against currency debasement. "The lesson is that bitcoin is NOT a safe haven or store of value the way gold is," Brooks wrote on X, while acknowledging that safe-haven status is ultimately shaped by perception. His latest remarks fit a longer-running bearish view. In March 2023, Brooks called BTC a "bubble asset" that could break down if the Federal Reserve pressed ahead with serious interest-rate increases, and said it offered "zero store of value function" and "zero diversification benefit." Later that year, he described Bitcoin as a "pointless asset," arguing its rallies were mostly a function of changing expectations for Federal Reserve policy. He also compared BTC to "just another futures contract on the Fed" and said investors would be better off trading Fed futures directly. Bitwise head of alpha strategies Jeff Park disputed the conclusion that Bitcoin's recent behavior rules it out of the debasement trade. Park said the more important pattern is that Bitcoin has historically rallied during both bull and bear yield-curve steepening (a widening gap between long- and short-term bond yields) episodes, citing March 2020, February 2021, March 2023, September-October 2023 and September 2024. His response came after Brooks said gold had risen 10% over the previous 10 days. Park's argument is that Bitcoin's sensitivity to different kinds of yield-curve steepening allows it to participate in both debasement and dedollarization trades (moves tied to shifting away from U.S. dollar assets).