I can tell you that gold and silver have been going sideways for sometime now and during this crisis BTC has acted just like an independent free market asset that is a store of wealth and not tied to any government. Physical gold and silver should be keeping pace with BTC because they have very similar properties. However, they are not because the gold and silver markets are bridled by paper sellers who can hold the price down even during a crisis like this. When the big boys get their hooks into BTC watch out for the same thing. I don't know if there is anyway to prevent short selling of crypto currency but it should be looked at. I think you are right in your analysis that with the world in crisis the stock market goes down and BTC goes up but BTC has been outperforming gold every step of the way. Gold is still under $1300 per Troy ounce while BTC recently broke $4000. Gold is wealth with no debt attached and BTC is very similar. The US dollar is a debt-ridden asset. Therefore BTC poses a similar threat to the world currency and taxation systems and will be a target for manipulation just as gold and silver have been. You can consider this pesssimistic or an opportunity to fix something before it breaks. The gold and silver markets are broken, don't let them do this to crypto.