Bitcoin has vastly outpaced gold and silver in terms of price appreciation since 2015, delivering a gain of roughly 27,701%, compared with about 405% for silver and 283% for gold over the same period, according to author and analyst Adam Livingston. He argued that even excluding Bitcoin’s earliest years, the performance gap remains substantial.
“Even ignoring the first six years of Bitcoin's existence, for the crybabies who whine about the timeframe comparison, gold and silver drastically underperform the apex asset,” Livingston wrote in an X post.
Longtime Bitcoin critic and gold proponent Peter Schiff pushed back, suggesting a shorter comparison window. “Times have changed. Bitcoin's time has passed,” Schiff said, urging a focus on the past four years instead of a decade.
Matt Golliher, co-founder of Bitcoin wealth management firm Orange Horizon Wealth, weighed in by pointing to the structural differences between commodities and assets with fixed supply. He noted that commodity prices tend to gravitate toward production costs over time.
“When the price increases, production of it increases, inflating the supply faster and bringing the price back down. Unless, of course, it has a fixed supply,” Golliher said. He added that higher prices have made previously unprofitable sources of gold and silver economically viable, increasing supply pressure.
This ongoing debate has intensified as precious metals post strong gains while Bitcoin’s price action remains more subdued and the US dollar weakens.
Gold reached a new all-time high of around $4,533 per ounce in 2025, while silver also climbed to record levels near $80 per ounce. At the same time, the US dollar is heading toward its weakest annual performance in a decade, with the US Dollar Index down close to 10% this year, according to media host Ethan Ralph.
Against this backdrop, analyst Arthur Hayes said that a declining dollar and accommodative monetary policy from the Federal Reserve could act as tailwinds for scarce assets such as gold, silver, and Bitcoin, as investors look for alternatives to weakening fiat currencies.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-outperformed-gold-silver-10-years
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/g7xkPkTa/?symbol=OANDA%3AXAUUSD
https://x.com/TheRalphRetort/status/2003532213548384287
https://x.com/MattGolliher/status/2005022796557263058
https://x.com/MattGolliher/status/2005016461140771067
https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2005005617346629850