As the summer season arrives, an unexpected heatwave is gripping financial markets.

This heat is coming in the form of the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which has been on a remarkable uptrend since late April, reaching levels unseen since early March’s banking crisis when the dollar wrecking ball wreaked havoc on asset prices.

This surge in the dollar has raised concerns among market participants due to its high inverse relationship with Bitcoin (BTC), a topic many macro and crypto analysts have discussed repeatedly in 2023.

The implication of this inverse correlation means that when the dollar rises, BTC falls and vice versa. The chart below showing the year-to-date performances of DXY (blue line) and BTC (orange line) underscores this relationship a step further.

Notice how Bitcoin’s 2023’s performance has been propelled by a downward dollar. Not coincidentally, the DXY reached its year-to-date low near 100.80 on April 13, nearly the exact date BTC reached its year-to-date high of just over $31,000. Since then, however, both have been trending in opposite directions.