Tribalism in Assets Gold Cryptocurrency Altcoins 14 Jan 2026

Tribalism in Assets and Investments

Perhaps one of the most disappointing features of those in different forms of sound money is their tribal, cult-like obsession with their preferred asset.

Individuals take obsessive stances on their preferred asset of choice, lashing out at anyone that dares to have ownership of a different asset;

• "If you have a silver or gold ETF, the ETFs are going to collapse any day now - the Comex will simply increase margins and drive the price down"
• "If you have physical gold and silver, you're an idiot as the government can just take it from you"
• "If you have your cryptocurrency on exchange, you're an idiot" - "Not your keys, not your coins!"
• "If you only have your cryptocurrency in hardware or a dedicated wallet, you're a fool because if you lose your keys you're done for!"
• "That coin is too centralised, it is owned by a company or a few individuals have a big allocation of the coins or tokens"
• "There is no bad time to buy Silver"
• "Bitcoin is the purest form of money, nothing else matters"
• "The price of this asset has fallen substantially, sell before it goes even lower"

Each tribal argument can be very convincing, but only really with hindsight do they get exposed for their over-arrogance.

Disclaimer - nothing in this document is financial advice, it is opinion based upon our own thoughts. This article is more about the ability to recognise cultism through tribal behaviour.

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The essence of tribes - Tribe Theory

Humans are tribal based upon thousands of years of understanding the benefits of belonging to a tribe. Most humans spend their entire life finding their tribes to fit in.

This is borrowed from a Ted-Talk, but we can think of there being multiple stages to tribes;

1. Angry, rebellious individuals, disruptive
2. "This sucks, let's change it"
3. Teams, "We're great, we don't like other teams"
4. "I'm great, being in my team makes me feel superior"
5. Altruism - connecting others from other teams for societal improvements

Every person reading the above, must consider where they sit on the tribal stage and whether it is healthy or not?

The false dichotomy of artificial groups

We observe false groups being created by social-media influencers, news outlets, financial media and others. The best example of this must be Peter Schiff - a great advocate of sound money as long as it is Gold and Silver. Schiff's main adage is that Bitcoin is going to zero and you should get out now, just buy Gold and Silver.

The most nonsensical of debates ongoing today must be the "Bitcoin versus Gold debate!" The arguments are wide ranging, but typically focus around the rejection of other tribes not being in their tribe.

A great example is the argument to "sell your bitcoin to buy gold". There are clear counters to this edict;

• Perhaps people already have gold?
• Perhaps people haven't put large amounts of money into cryptocurrency?
• Perhaps many have diversified their assets?
• Perhaps they have family trusts with assets in multiple jurisdictions?

The implication is that anyone not doing what the influencer says means these groups must be in the low-IQ tribe, we should laugh at them for being so ignorant, etc. Furthermore, not buying an asset at an all-time-high, is not financial suicide - but a moment of salvation.

Doing your own research

Whilst not foolproof, you can come up with pretty good heuristics from maybe twenty minutes on LLM/AI. For example, this recent flood of Asia Guy videos going viral makes some very good points in our opinion. Yet, we should still validate it.

We must also consider the motivation of every individual for pushing people into a certain frame of mind.

What if they are wrong? What if, silver is not going to $300, $600? What if Bitcoin is not going to $250k? Imagine you have put a large amount of money into an asset and it drops to 50% of what you paid for it? What if it drops to 10%? Will these people be there to keep patting you on the back? Or will they be pumping the next asset after having got in and out early enough?

What is the real cost to money you hold cash in a bank to see its purchasing power diminish due to inflation?

Tribalism and Herd-Mentality

The seeming equivalence of tribalism and Herd-Mentality does not appear to be uncorrelated? In reality, it is assuming one has an identity within a space simply by owning an asset, be it an iPhone, a Samsung, a Rolex. Yet, sit down with most of these people and the difference between you and them will be striking. The reasons for belonging to just one tribe in a maximalist manner can appear to be self-sabotage. The preference should instead be to try and be within many tribes.

Asset price as the ultimate validation of tribes

Unfortunately, the only thing that matters to other asset tribes is how the value of their item sits in comparison to others. If other tribes appear to win, all-manner of hostility is pushed out to the other tribes. Many will claim it is irrelevant, their asset represents freedom.

Acknowledging truly bad assets and systems is not tribalism necessarily

Despite our article focusing on avoiding becoming tribal, recognising obvious failings in bad systems and approaches and calling them out does not make you a tribalist. Proposing old and new approaches that from your analysis are better is not tribalism.

Simple rules to avoid becoming tribal

• Understand the good and bad features of each asset
• Put as little money as you can into different assets early
• Evaluate whether the credibility of the asset holds up, this is not a one-off
• Do not just focus on price aside from buying it cheaply
• On assets that can be traded, swing trade to accumulate more and hopefully get the cash out you put in
• Consider the risks of self-custody versus managed custodianship
• Understand the motivation of the messenger, it may well be practical for a financial institution but it may not make sense to a retail investor
• Understand narratives, are they fairytale like with intricate plots or commonsense?
• Nobody can predict the future
• If you follow influencers or market professionals, validate their claims

The real truth - Accumulating cheaply over time and not getting sucked into narratives

The one huge difference between professional investors and retail investors is that they have accumulated their assets over a combination of;

• Taking measured risks
• Recognising undervalued assets, buying more when market sentiment is low
• Reducing exposure as conditions change
• Not believing the hype, having clear strategies

As an example, some hedge funds do a 4 Quadrant model. Each quadrant has a clear range of assets that are held. The idea is to determine market indicators/conditions and move assets from one quadrant to another with the aim of being aggressive and defensive. Now, retail investors are not hedge funds. Retail has longer time horizons, does not have quarterly reports, mark-to-market, sophisticated risk management models.

Retail investors don't have the same tax benefits and definitely not the same technology, but for some the principles are similar - reallocating capital as market conditions change.

Recognising the same story for different assets

A very good indicator for us, that an asset is way over-hyped is when a new asset's price starts to take-off and the exact same arguments are being presented as with another asset that was rising but now falling. The same argument that was bearish on a particular tribe is no longer attached to the rising asset and is now ascribed to the falling asset.

Is it worth being in a tribe at all?

The question we ask - is it the price or the utility peaking interest? Both? Bitcoin, for us, has led to magnificent innovations and is much bigger than Bitcoin. Is it worth all that energy trying to convince everyone to belong to your tribe? Working with an asset and creating utility from its features seems to be a far better allocation of effort?

Separating genuine vision from complacency

Unfortunately, we cannot tell what will happen. Sound proponents of good logical arguments are a much better predictor than hyperbole and zealotry.

Sometimes, there are clear winners after the event!