Bitcoin Trails Equities, Metals, and USD in Q3. Here Is a Key Level to Watch for Next Move

Bitcoin BTC$89,959.07 just ended what is historically the largest cryptocurrency's third-worst week of the year with a greater-than-average drop of 5%. Week 38 effectively closes out the third quarter, which is up about 1%, as well as September, which has managed to hold flat.

While the figures are consistent with the period's historical reputation as one of the weakest seasons of the year, a few catalysts might have contributed to the underperformance.

On Friday, more than $17 billion in options expired, with the max pain price — the strike price at which option holders lose the most money and options writers profit the most — sitting at $110,000, which acted as a gravitational center for the spot price.

A key technical factor remains the short-term holder cost basis at $110,775, which reflects the average on-chain acquisition price for coins that moved in the past six months.

Bitcoin tested this level in August, and in bull markets, it typically moves toward this line multiple times. This year, it broke significantly below that level only once: during the tariff tantrum in April, when it dropped to as low as $74,500.

Zooming out, it is important to assess whether bitcoin remains in an uptrend characterized by higher highs and higher lows to get an idea of whether the rally is sustainable.

Analyst Caleb Franzen highlights that bitcoin has slipped below its 100-day exponential moving average (EMA), with the 200-day EMA sitting at $106,186. The previous significant low was around $107,252 on Sept. 1, and for the broader trend to remain intact, bitcoin will need to hold above that level.,

Macro Backdrop

The U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 3.8% in the second quarter, well above the 3.3% estimate and the strongest performance since the second quarter of 2023. Initial jobless claims dropped by 14,000 to 218,000, coming in below expectations and marking the lowest level since mid-July. While spending data came in line with the market's expectation. The US core PCE price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of underlying inflation that excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% in August 2025 from the prior month.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries bounced off the 4% support, and is now trading near 4.2%. The dollar index (DXY) continues to hover around long-term support at 98. Meanwhile, metals are leading the action, with silver at around $45 approaching an all-time high at levels last seen in 1980 and 2011. U.S. equities, in the meantime, are just shy of their records.

Bitcoin remains the outlier at more than 10% below its peak.

Bitcoin-Exposed Equities

Bitcoin treasury companies continue to face severe multiple-to-net-asset-value (mNAV) compression. Strategy (MSTR) is barely positive year-to-date. At one point, it dipped below $300, a negative return for 2025.

The ratio between Strategy and BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) stands at 4.8, the lowest since October 2024, which shows just how much the largest bitcoin treasury company has underperformed bitcoin over the past 12 months.

Strategy’s enterprise mNAV is currently 1.44 (as of Friday). Enterprise value here accounts for all basic shares outstanding, total notional debt and total notional value of perpetual preferred stock minus the company’s cash balance.

The silver lining for MSTR is that three of the four perpetual preferred stocks, STRK, STRC and STRF, are all sporting positive lifetime returns as Executive Chairman Michael Saylor looks to buy more BTC through these vehicles.

A growing issue for MSTR is the lack of volatility in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency's Implied volatility — a measure of the market’s expectation of future price fluctuations — has dropped below 40, the lowest in years.

This matters because Saylor has often framed MSTR as a volatility play on bitcoin. For comparison, MSTR’s implied volatility is at 68. Its annualized standard deviation of daily log returns over the past year was 89%, while over the last 30 days it has fallen to 49%.

For equities, higher volatility often attracts speculators, generates trading opportunities and draws investor attention, so the decline is likely acting as a headwind.

Meantime, the fifth-largest bitcoin treasury company, Metaplanet (3350), holds 25,555 BTC and still has roughly $500 million left to deploy from its international offering. Despite this, its share price continues to struggle at 517 yen ($3.45), more than 70% below its all-time high.

Metaplanet’s mNAV has dropped to 1.12, down sharply from 8.44 in June. Its market capitalization now stands at $3.94 billion compared to a bitcoin NAV of $2.9 billion, with an average BTC acquisition cost of $106,065.