The recent rise in gold prices vs Bitcoin is largely due to increased supply-demand imbalance and a risk-off appetite in markets
Peter Schiff argues that Bitcoin is in a long-term bear market when priced in gold. This statement from Schiff comes after gold has rebounded back to over $5,000 and BTC has fallen under $74,000 for the first time since late 2024.
Bitcoin collapsed to a new low of under $73,000 this Wednesday as the larger cryptocurrency market continues to experience a downward spiral. Veteran investor Peter Schiff took to X shortly after the news broke to share his opinion on the matter, stating that BTC is in a long-term bear market if priced in gold. He went on to say that it is now worth only 15 ounces of the precious metal after falling below $76,000.
Schiff has been a long-term critic of Bitcoin, rejecting comparisons between it and gold as he believes cryptocurrency does not hold intrinsic value. He has remained very adamant in his opposition to BTC despite the surge in institutional adoption that has been seen in the past year.
Regardless, his stance does hold a new weight, as Bitcoin continues to plunge in value while gold has rebounded above $5,000 after falling to around $4,650 yesterday. The asset is up over 15% since the beginning of the new year, while Bitcoin, on the other hand, is down by over 20% and is showing no sign of recovery in the near term.
The debate of Bitcoin versus gold has emerged as a topic of hot debate once again as crypto prices are in freefall while gold surges in value. The gap in performance between gold and BTC was very pronounced in 2025, with gold prices appreciating by 65% while BTC price lost 6% of its value. This scenario has given quite a bit of ammunition to someone like Peter Schiff, who has long criticized cryptocurrencies while being a strong advocate of gold.
However, the question of whether BTC or gold is a better investment is not an easy question to answer and comes with a lot of nuances. One must consider various factors like personal risk preference, historical returns, and price volatility to get a better picture of the issue.
Between 2011 and 2025, Bitcoin had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 90% compared to roughly 6% for gold, with an individual standard deviation of around 150%, roughly ten times higher than gold. This shows that while Bitcoin has been a much better-performing asset since 2011, it has also shown a great deal more price volatility.
While this has decreased over the years as Bitcoin matures, gold still proves to be a more stable asset that provides relatively predictable and consistent returns. Gold is also tangible, while Bitcoin is not, although this does not seem to be as much of a decisive issue anymore for potential investors of BTC as it once was due to the growing legitimization of the asset.
Ark Investment Management published a report in January 2026 examining why gold has been outperforming Bitcoin recently. They stated that the long-term ascent of gold prices is largely due to its supply being outpaced by global wealth creation. This is contrary to the idea that gold’s strong performance in 2025 is due to fears of inflation. Gold supply has also been increasing at a modest pace, which creates a supply-demand imbalance, ushering in higher prices.
Conversely, Bitcoin has a fixed supply schedule that does not respond to price increases. While Ark’s Cathie Wood claims that this makes the asset more structurally scarce, it also means that its price performance is much more reliant on investor demand rather than supply-side constraints.
Additionally, current global economic uncertainty has created a risk-off environment, which historically drives investors away from risk assets like cryptocurrency and into historically safe assets like gold. The macro environment right now is simply more favorable to precious metals like gold, and until risk appetite shifts, this means it will continue to outperform BTC.
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