Despite thousands of years of history and an 11X larger market capitalization, gold has returned double the performance of bitcoin (BTC) to its investors this year.
Since January 1, gold has rallied 32% versus BTC’s far more modest 16%.
Today’s gold price is also historic for another reason, namely that its price rally has reached exactly 100X since the US dollar abandoned the gold standard at $35 per ounce in 1971. One ounce of gold now costs $3,500.
These numbers are somewhat disappointing for BTC promoters who advertised the asset as “digital gold.”
In fact, depending on the exact time frame you choose, gold has outperformed BTC for nearly four years. Since their November 2021 highs, for example, gold has rallied 85% versus the 61% rally in BTC.
Bitcoin lags gold during Donald Trump’s second term
In March, Protos noted that BTC performed better during Donald Trump’s first term as president. That analysis holds true when expanding the price comparison through today.
When Trump first became president in 2017, BTC was trading under $900. By September 2, 2017, it had rallied to $4,600.
Compare that 411% rally with its woeful underperformance during the same 225-day calendar stretch of this year.
On Trump’s 2025 inauguration day, BTC was trading at $102,000. It’s rallied just 9% to $111,000 as of publication time.
In other words, BTC performed 40,000 basis points better during Trump’s first 225 days as president in 2017 than it has during his 225 days in 2025.
Read more: Is the US government allowed to sell gold to buy bitcoin?
Indeed, initial enthusiasm about Trump’s crypto prospects have dimmed considerably since he won his election. His memecoin TRUMP is down 88% from its January 2025 high.
His wife’s MELANIA token is down 98% over the same time period.
Trump’s new WLFI governance token is down 34% since its launch yesterday, and the floor price of all of his NFT collections have declined precipitously.