Bitcoin is on track to end January underperforming gold for the sixth straight month, as investors shrug off the largest cryptocurrency’s “digital gold” moniker and seek the safety of a metal that has historically been seen as a safe haven in times of economic and geopolitical turmoil.
The bitcoin/gold ratio, the amount of gold equivalent to 1 BTC, has fallen 23% this month and currently stands at 16.3. The six-month pattern looks a lot like what happened in 2019, when the streak started in August and ended in January of the following year. At the time, bitcoin outperformed gold over the next five months.
The first signs of a decline could appear. The ratio rebounded 4% on Friday after falling to 15.5 on Thursday. This low coincided with a strong sell-off in global markets, with an aggressive decline in risk assets.
Bitcoin is currently hovering around $82,000, down just over 2% since midnight UTC. For comparison, gold fell more than 8% and silver fell about 16%.
Since peaking in late 2024, the bitcoin/gold ratio has declined by approximately 60%, placing bitcoin in a technically bear market against gold for approximately 14 months. Even though the ratio has now bottomed, this does not automatically imply strong upside potential for Bitcoin. This may simply reflect gold continuing to weaken at a faster rate than bitcoin.
