Bitwise: The correlation between Bitcoin and gold has risen to its highest level since 2020, while its correlation with US stocks has fallen to a one-year low.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF purchased 28,589 shares of Robinhood (HOOD) on September 4. At the day’s closing price of $122.11, the stake is valued at roughly $3.5 million. The move marks a re-addition to Robinhood after Wood recently trimmed her holdings in the stock; she had previously sold 25,009 shares on August 26. Robinhood’s share price has surged over 30% in the past month, while Bitcoin rose around 23% over the same period to near $80,000. On September 4, Deutsche Bank lifted Robinhood’s price target from $115 to $136 and retained its “Buy” rating, citing that fee revenue from Robinhood Chain has grown far beyond expectations. Data shows the daily revenue of the chain stood below $200,000 in mid-August, but jumped to $3.38 million on September 1 and $4.01 million on September 2. Deutsche Bank projects its annualized run rate will exceed $100 million. As of September 4, Robinhood ranks as the seventh-largest holding in the ARK Innovation ETF, making up 4.28% of the fund’s weight. Separately, Wood has recently added positions in Veracyte, Intellia Therapeutics, and the 3iQ Solana Staking ETF, while trimming stakes in Tempus AI and Twist Bioscience.

Galaxy Research said attackers in the third wave of Coldcard hardware wallet breaches have recently transferred 97.09 BTC, worth roughly $7.7 million at current prices, accounting for about 45% of the Bitcoin stolen in this wave. Among these funds, on September 2, attackers transferred approximately 20.5 BTC across chains to Ethereum via THORChain; they then moved some of the funds into the CoinJoin mixing process to make tracing the assets more difficult. To date, 11 of the 293 2-of-2 multisig addresses set up by attackers during the third wave have been emptied. According to reports, the Coldcard security incident stems from a firmware vulnerability introduced in 2021, which drastically reduced the randomness of the wallet's mnemonic phrase generation, allowing attackers to reconstruct private keys offline and steal funds. As of now, roughly 82% of all Bitcoin stolen in the entire Coldcard attack remains untransferred. Galaxy Research estimates that if newly identified suspected victim addresses are included in the count, the total amount of stolen BTC could reach around 1,806 coins, worth approximately $144 million.

An analysis points out that against the backdrop of fiscal concerns pushing up global bond yields, the correlation between Bitcoin and gold’s price trends has continued to climb. Their 90-day return correlation coefficient currently stands at 0.59, the highest level since 2020. However, in terms of sensitivity to changes in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, Bitcoin exhibits stronger independence. Data shows that the 90-day correlation coefficient between BTC and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield is only -0.17, while gold’s correlation coefficient with the same yield is -0.41, meaning rising bond yields have a relatively more pronounced suppressing effect on gold. This reflects that Bitcoin has a lower degree of linkage with the traditional bond market, and may possess stronger decoupling capability amid headwinds in traditional financial markets such as rising yields. Nevertheless, shifts in correlation do not mean Bitcoin can fully evade macro risks.

Against the backdrop of strong U.S. August jobs data, Wall Street’s expectations for a September interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve have risen. CME FedWatch data shows the market currently assigns a 58.4% probability that the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75%-4% at its September FOMC meeting. The data indicates U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 162,000 in August, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1%. Meanwhile, U.S. inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target, and markets are concerned that supply shocks including the Middle East situation, rising oil prices, and tariffs could continue to drive inflation higher. Institutions such as Macquarie, Bank of America, and UBS have all raised their outlooks for subsequent interest rate hikes. On the other hand, the Trump administration continues to pressure the Federal Reserve to cut rates. Trump recently stated that the Fed should lower interest rates, noting that high rates are putting the U.S. at a disadvantage. Vice President Vance also said that cutting rates would help improve U.S. housing affordability. As the market shifts to pricing in rate hikes, the Fed led by Wash faces dual pressure from the White House and market expectations.

According to Prism, Tim Cook earned a total compensation of roughly $2.397 billion (equivalent to about 16.1 billion yuan) during his tenure as Apple CEO from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2025. Of this total, stock awards valued at approximately $2.221 billion at vesting made up around 93% of his overall pay, while his base salary, cash bonuses and other compensation combined for about $176 million. The report notes Cook’s high salary sparked shareholder disputes during his time as CEO. In 2022, Apple’s 2021 fiscal year executive compensation plan only secured 64% shareholder approval, leading the company to lower Cook’s target compensation and raise the proportion of performance-linked stock awards. After stepping down as CEO and transitioning to Apple’s executive chairman role, Cook’s compensation was adjusted further. The currently disclosed plan shows his annual salary will drop from $3 million to $2 million, and his stock awards will decrease from $50 million to $45 million, totaling roughly $47 million. Meanwhile, new CEO John Ternus will receive an annual stock award of $55 million, maintaining Apple’s compensation structure centered on equity incentives.

Despite occasional "Sell America" rhetoric in the market, U.S. assets held by overseas investors have risen to around $39 trillion, hitting a record high. This marks an increase of roughly $16 trillion from the 2022 bear market low, a 70% rise, and double the approximately $19 trillion held during the 2020 pandemic period. U.S. equities are the largest source of this growth, with overseas holdings doubling to $24 trillion, accounting for about 62% of total holdings; U.S. Treasury bond holdings have also risen to a record $8 trillion, making up around 21% of the total.