Precious metals rally shows no signs of slowing down, while bitcoin BTC$89,880.52 and the broader crypto market remains stuck sideways.
Gold rose another 1.7% to $4,930 an ounce on Thursday, while silver gained 3.7% to $96 an ounce. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is back to just over $89,000, about 30% below its all-time high from early October.
Bitcoin and gold inhabit the same world, and the poor price performance of Bitcoin in recent months has led Jim Bianco, director of Bianco Research, to wonder if BTCThe adoption story is over.
“Adoption ads aren’t working anymore,” Bianco said in an X post. “I need a new theme and it’s not obvious yet.”
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, responded, pointing out that bitcoin is now consolidating after rising from below $16,000 in the depths of the crypto winter of 2022 to its peak of $126,000 in October.
“It grew 300 percent in the previous 20 months,” Balchunas said. “What do you want? 200% annual gains without interruption?”
Balchunas said early investors were cashing out their profits to make profits after many years of holding, what he dubbed Bitcoin’s “silent IPO,” which likely contributed to Bitcoin’s poor performance, Balchunas said. One example among many, he continued, is that of an investor who sold more than $9 billion worth BTC in July after holding him for more than a decade.
Bianco argued that Bitcoin was losing ground against almost everything in the 14 months since President Trump’s election victory in November 2024. Bitcoin is down 2.6%, he said, while silver is up 205%, gold is up 83%, the Nasdaq is up 24% and the S&P 500 is up 17.6%.
“And while we wait for this new theme, everything else is moving forward. BTC gets stuck in the mud.”
The final word goes to Balchunas, who mentioned that as of November 2024, bitcoin is up 122% year-over-year, significantly outperforming gold. Metals, he said, have caught up.