As Gold Prices Approach $3K, Why Is Bitcoin Failing to Keep Up?

Bitcoin and gold have been on highly disparate price trajectories for the past half-year, which spells trouble for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

The yellow metal has continuously registered fresh peaks and is close to breaking above $3,000/oz for the first time ever – meanwhile, BTC has been stuck below $100,000 for most of February.

Gold Runs Wild

Experts have outlined numerous reasons behind the precious metal’s ascent in 2025. Perhaps the most probable one is the rising inflation in the US and other countries, coupled with the global uncertainty prompted by President Trump’s controversial actions since he assumed office for the second time in mid-January.

Being the go-to global asset in times of growing inflation and economic uncertainty, investors and central banks turned to gold in an unprecedented manner, perhaps last seen during the early days of the COVID-19 crash in 2020.

Financial gurus are now rushing to praise the yellow metal after years of disregarding it, claiming that the $3,000 price tag will fall inevitably and will be just the start of an even more impressive rally. Whether that would come to fruition is anyone’s guess at the moment, but it’s true that the metal has expanded its dominance over other assets in the past few months.

Gold stands unchallenged at the first position with a total market capitalization of almost $20 trillion. This number is higher than the next seven financial assets combined (which include BTC).

BTC Struggles

Gold’s price chart shows a contrasting picture compared to BTC’s (below). The precious metal actually tumbled after Trump’s win at the 2024 presidential elections in early November, while most riskier assets, such as bitcoin, exploded. It took three months for gold to recover the lost ground, which happened in early February.

In contrast, the primary cryptocurrency skyrocketed immediately after the elections and, after some ups and downs in late 2024 and early 2025, peaked on Trump’s inauguration day at almost $110,000. Since then, it has corrected hard and currently stands almost 15% away from its all-time high.

In contrast, the yellow metal has only solidified its strong run in February. It marked a new all-time high on Thursday, and even though it retraced slightly, it’s about 1-2% away from it.

So, do these completely different price movements spell even more trouble for BTC? After all, experts are convinced that gold will keep climbing and charting fresh peaks. Does that mean that bitcoin will continue to struggle?

Well, there’s no simple answer to this question. The fact is that demand for BTC has faded in recent weeks, especially in the US, which is evident by the declining Coinbase Premium metric and the lackluster performance of the local ETFs.

However, the financial markets, and crypto in particular, are highly irrational and unlogical places to be. It’s difficult to make even educated predictions, but bitcoin often does the opposite of what people expect of it. As such, don’t be too surprised if it reverses its trajectory in the following weeks and months and heads for new peaks regardless of gold’s performance.