An investor who put $1 into Bitcoin a decade ago would have enough money to buy a luxury yacht — but those who invested the same amount in gold would only have enough to buy a Snickers bar.
Crypto analyst Willy Woo posted a chart to Twitter on June 9 examining the performance of Bitcoin (BTC) vs. gold over a ten-year period starting on Oct. 6, 2019.
According to Woo, if someone had put just $1 behind BTC in 2019, their investment would be worth $12.8 million today. However, a comparable investment in gold would have barely seen any return, just $1.66 by 2020.
I made a new live chart for gold bugs.
— Willy Woo (@woonomic) June 9, 2020
$1 invested over 10.7 years...
Today's value:
Bitcoin: $12.8m (a luxury yacht)
Gold: $1.66 (a snickers bar)https://t.co/5TEucxgFdD pic.twitter.com/m7FPBbnmvc
“I humbly dedicate this chart to Peter Schiff in honour of his tireless promotion of Bitcoin to his audience of gold bugs,” said Woo.
Schiff is a staunch gold proponent who has claimed “only fools are choosing Bitcoin” rather than gold. The gold bug fired back at Woo:
“If you invest $12.8 million in Bitcoin today, 10.7 years from now you will be lucky if you can still afford to buy a Snickers Bar.”
Is ‘digital gold’ the best analogy?
There is no data on cryptocurrencies prior to 2009 (because they didn’t exist), but many have been touting gold as a wise purchase for decades now.
However, gold has been a relatively poor investment over the past forty years. Adjusted for inflation, the price of gold peaked at just over $2,200 in 1980 and is currently valued at $1,713. If you’d bought it in February 1980, you’d be sitting on a negative $500 return in inflation adjusted terms.
Inflated-adjusted price of gold. Source: Macrotrends.com
One has to wonder if crypto investors labeling BTC as ‘digital gold’ could come up with a better metaphor. If the precious metals market was to somehow become a good investment, gold bugs might be able to start calling gold ‘physical crypto’.