Could Bitcoin replace Gold in value?

[Dynamite++]

Bitcoin a surprising, fast growing crypto currency and actually the first crypto currency created, for the main purpose of decentralization shifting from digital Fiat to a safe transaction system, using blockchain technology. Bitcoin growth surprise a lot of people, increasing in value and usage in the pass years. Amd now the government of some countries have started accepting Bitcoin, and a lot of big companies are buying a lot.
             Gold on the other hand have been around for a long time, from using it physically for transactions before the Internet came to existence, and now using it in a digital form, in this internet age. Mainly gold is now a safe haven for investors to store their money during war threats or in an incident of war, as is still an acceptable valued material for transaction all over the world.
 So am basically asking do you think Bitcoin could replace gold in this aspect? Like in being a safe haven for investors in times of war or been a fully acceptable valued material for transactions generally in the world?

[Ambatman]

Gold isn't digital not even in even in the modern day
They are more like token or options tracking Golds price
And I won't call it a replacement because even in today's world there are people that still prefer
Physical books to e-books.

Currently many first instinct during crisis is buying Gold maybe as time goes on there would be a competitor to that instinctive action.

[Franctoshi]

There has been different discussions base on this topic regarding Bitcoin and gold, However Bitcoin is a digital asset unlike gold, there's no way it can replace gold both serves their purposes, hedge against inflation, a store of value, and Bitcoin is a Decentralised payment system that serves as a medium of exchange for cross border payment, whereas gold is not a currency. Gold can be refined and use for production of jewelleries etc. whereas Bitcoin doesn't have physical value.

[FirmWars]

So am basically asking do you think Bitcoin could replace gold in this aspect? Like in being a safe haven for investors in times of war or been a fully acceptable valued material for transactions generally in the world?

Bitcoin has been considered a safe heaven already by some people early before 2025, everyone will always have different preference when they are seeking for a safe heaven asset that why gold nor Bitcoin will replace each other's because they because even a Bitcoiner that wants to diversify, might want to go into gold investment as their alternative save heaven, vice versa for a gold investors to wants to diversify to another safe heaven.

[Sammye3]

In terms of Bitcoin's cryptography and structure, it is much more dispensable compared to gold as it could be sent across countries within seconds but gold cannot be carried around all the time for transactional purposes. To this aspect I don't think Bitcoin can fully replace gold even if there are more benefits it has over gold.

This is because gold has survived centuries and it's still standing, still trusted and reliable but Bitcoin is only 15 years and we still look forward to its future. Bitcoin's volatility can be rapid and impulsive compared to gold which moves slowly and reduces the risk of losses. Both gold and Bitcoin are a good store of value and they have their importance both generally and specifically so should not be compared in terms of replacement.

[Alphakilo]

I would say it depends on your perspective as an investor, because I believe Bitcoin is rather complementing Gold, as opposed to replacing it.
Also, if we look at the market cap, utility or investor psychology, one can have both gold and Bitcoin for different uses and while gold is old and already has an established market, Bitcoin is still growing and has been a digital currency of value that can assure wealth accumulation and creation in this digital era through growth and scarcity, whereas, gold is absolute for something like a life long insurance

[d5000]

Bitcoin is still perceived as too risky, while gold is perceived as "safe".

But there is something changing already, which could help Bitcoin's status as a "safe haven" asset: Even Bitcoin enemies now acknowledge in general that Bitcoin will not "die" anymore. The risk that it falls to "zero", which was still quite a frequent fear before the late 2010s, seems thus be gone, at least in the public opinion.

My guess is that Bitcoin can rival gold if:

- gold enters a bear market after the current bull run
- at the same time, Bitcoin's most dramatic bear market in the last 5 years (i.e. of a "full cycle") was less pronounced than gold's most pronounced bear markets in the last 30 years or so.

Gold's most pronounced bear market in the last decades was the 2011-2016 bear market, where gold lost 45-50% of its previous ATH of $2000.

For this reason I consider it a milestone for Bitcoin if the most pronounced bear market of a 5-year phase is a loss of less than 50% from the previous ATH. The 2022 bear was still miles away from that with 76% loss.

The first point in time where this can happen would be 2027. If Bitcoin, until 2027, doesn't fall lower than $65000, then we're on track.

See also: Bitcoin's roadmap towards Gold flippening

[Amphenomenon]

Gold isn't digital not even in even in the modern day
They are more like token or options tracking Golds price
And I won't call it a replacement because even in today's world there are people that still prefer
Physical books to e-books.

Currently many first instinct during crisis is buying Gold maybe as time goes on there would be a competitor to that instinctive action.

Bitcoin is considered as the new gold, this is a part of the perceptive many has about Bitcoin. We can say bitcoin might replace or compete with digital gold with time and this is from the fact that we are spending more of our lives on the internet, which shows that the digital world is fast growing and bigger than the physical world.

[IjawMan]

So am basically asking do you think Bitcoin could replace gold in this aspect? Like in being a safe haven for investors in times of war or been a fully acceptable valued material for transactions generally in the world?

Bitcoin has been considered a safe heaven already by some people early before 2025, everyone will always have different preference when they are seeking for a safe heaven asset that why gold nor Bitcoin will replace each other's because they because even a Bitcoiner that wants to diversify, might want to go into gold investment as their alternative save heaven, vice versa for a gold investors to wants to diversify to another safe heaven.

Bitcoin do not utterly stand in that pedestal of safe haven as gold which is long ago classified. Bitcoin still stands in many quarters as a risk asset than a safe haven but with the growing adoption in a few years people can be 100% convinced to accept that bitcoin has attained all that qualifies an asset to be a safe haven when compared with  the precious metals.

Is a fact that gold and bitcoin are two top choice investment assets and it is rational to have  investors diversifying to have portfolios in both assets bearing in mind how the two has been competing in price.

[Zigabel]

There's this flexibility that Bitcoin has got that Gold may not have to the best of my knowledge, I know Gold can literally be transacted in any part of the world and is more like a generally accepted currency to a vast majority across the world but there's this flexibility that with Bitcoin you don't necessarily need that tangiblity in other for you to me able  to move it around, you can literally move to another country and once  you have access to a device and Internet, you have your assets but if you are moving with Gold, it could be stolen from you.

The tangiblility that builds some level of trust for those who use Ethan_Crypto as their trust yardstick helps Gold build that advantage over Bitcoin and gold is more generally accepted than Bitcoin as most countries are still wion it's acceptance, so they are both not replacing each other but has got their areas where they perfectly fit.

[VirDolorum]

I don’t think Bitcoin replaces gold in a direct sense — they solve overlapping, but still different problems.

Gold is a physical, apolitical hedge. It doesn’t rely on electricity, internet access, or software. That’s exactly why it has held value through wars, regime changes, and systemic collapses. In extreme scenarios, that physical property still matters.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a digital hedge. Its strength is portability, censorship resistance, and predictable supply. In situations where capital controls exist or moving wealth across borders is difficult, Bitcoin already does things gold simply can’t do.

Where I think the discussion gets more interesting is that governments themselves seem to be moving toward blockchain-style infrastructure without calling it crypto at all. They adopt the ledger and verification ideas, but keep control and avoid the narrative. That suggests Bitcoin isn’t replacing gold or the state — it’s coexisting alongside both.

I recently read a piece that explores how governments are adopting blockchain without embracing crypto narratives, which adds another angle to this debate:
https://btcusa.com/how-governments-are-adopting-blockchain-without-calling-it-crypto/

So my view:
Gold remains the ultimate long-term physical safe haven.
Bitcoin becomes a parallel digital store of value, especially useful in a connected world.

Not replacement — more like complementary roles, depending on the type of risk you’re hedging against.

[noorman0]

-snip-

My guess is that Bitcoin can rival gold if:

- gold enters a bear market after the current bull run
- at the same time, Bitcoin's most dramatic bear market in the last 5 years (i.e. of a "full cycle") was less pronounced than gold's most pronounced bear markets in the last 30 years or so.

Gold is considered safe for more than just small drawdowns, and 30 with 5 yrs periods are too period-selective in my opinion.
Broader perspective:
- Gold isn't truly issued by any single entity, so it can be produced even by the retail class without competition for equipment resources.
- Gold truly doesn't depend on anything like the internet, electricity, consensus, etc. Gold would still be valuable even if the world returned to the Stone Age.

A safe haven shouldn't just be a belief, but a global economic practice. If gold's drawdown can reach 50% even in the last 10 yrs, it's considered an anomaly that shouldn't occur in a safe haven asset. Meanwhile, if Bitcoin repeatedly exceeds that drawdown in the same period, people assume it's part of the "cycle" and normal.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

I recently read a piece that explores how governments are adopting blockchain without embracing crypto narratives, which adds another angle to this debate:
https://btcusa.com/how-governments-are-adopting-blockchain-without-calling-it-crypto/

Great link but it adds nothing to the gold vs BTC discussions. It just highlights the fact that blockchain technology does not have to have any connection to money. Being a very secure append-only ledger lets it be used for recording and verifying any kind of open ended data records eg logistics tracking, supply-chain data, land records, etc.

[Churchillvv]

Even though they both can’t replace each other instead they can be supportive of each other I still don’t see bitcoin replacing Gold anytime soon. The old school guys till date will still prefer Gold in its physical state than bitcoin which is digital but however the fear of loss of bitcoin or bitcoin being a bubble has been going into extinction recently and that can help bitcoin stand up against Gold but not to cover its milestones that Gold has lead. Gold is still healthy in competition in terms of reserve but bitcoin still struggles to be pass into bill in most countries, acceptance and other assets features being denied from bitcoin in some countries for now but I’m sure that will be reduced gradually.

[Plutomanian]

There has been different discussions base on this topic regarding Bitcoin and gold, However Bitcoin is a digital asset unlike gold, there's no way it can replace gold both serves their purposes, hedge against inflation, a store of value, and Bitcoin is a Decentralised payment system that serves as a medium of exchange for cross border payment, whereas gold is not a currency. Gold can be refined and use for production of jewelleries etc. whereas Bitcoin doesn't have physical value.

Bitcoin and Gold are basically two different thing and there have been the higher and lower domain in the financial markets. Consequently there's absolutely no room for Bitcoin to surpass or replace Gold because they both serve different criteria in the financial market. The crypto traders deal mainly on bitcon while the forex traders are focusing all concentration on XAAUS simply Gold.

Everyone have something they've benefited and knowing the road map of the market. The system is not promised and been designated to make people fail and the market doesn't want you to come up and conquer, they want to see traders and investors on their knees crying and regretting their lives. At the end, we go for the pairs that favors us.

[d5000]

Gold is considered safe for more than just small drawdowns,

I agree, but Bitcoin can rival it in the most significant of its core "unique selling propositions" (limited supply) if it was perceived as less risky.

30 with 5 yrs periods are too period-selective in my opinion.

Selective, yes, but it's not arbitrary:

- 5 years were chosen because Bitcoin had several roughly 4 year long bull-bear cycles in a row. This means that the main ATH-bottom drawdowns occur in this time period. There was never a bear market longer than a 1,5 years, but "crypto winter" conditions with weak sentiment and price were longer. So 5 years, to measure Bitcoin's bear market durations and price decreases in %, is currently a reasonable timeframe.
- 30 years was selected because many currently living gold/crypto investors would then remember that bear market. The 1980-1990s bear market was even deeper (almost 70%), but many may not remember it or attribute it to "a different world" than we're living in now.

Broader perspective:
- Gold isn't truly issued by any single entity, so it can be produced even by the retail class without competition for equipment resources.
- Gold truly doesn't depend on anything like the internet, electricity, consensus, etc. Gold would still be valuable even if the world returned to the Stone Age.

I agree with the first idea but the gold issued by "retailers" is imo a negligible quantity.

The second one is somewhat true, but 1) it is unlikely that the world is ran down to the extent Bitcoin and networks like the Internet become impossible to manage, and 2) the value of gold would not be as high as today as it wasn't for electronic trading and central banks demand. The price would probably plummet so much by people selling their gold in a "stone age situation" that simply hoarding more directly "usable" commodities (longeval edibles, even copper - to restablish electricity!) would be more convenient.

A safe haven shouldn't just be a belief, but a global economic practice. If gold's drawdown can reach 50% even in the last 10 yrs, it's considered an anomaly that shouldn't occur in a safe haven asset. Meanwhile, if Bitcoin repeatedly exceeds that drawdown in the same period, people assume it's part of the "cycle" and normal.

That's why the drawdown cycle must break for Bitcoin having any chance to rival gold.

There are some other scenarios but they are less likely:

- insane competition among states and companies for Bitcoin treasuries, driving Bitcoin so high that it rivals gold's "market cap",
- wide, non-speculative mass adoption even if the cycles remain as volatile as ever. IMO mass adoption is much more likely to occur if volatility is reduced, as otherwise the "losers" will always be a force driving down the general sentiment, and some traders will share interests with them.

[Darker45]

Yeah, in times of war, gold could remain a safe haven. But I'm speaking of real gold not a mere number on a site. During wartime, you can't trust fiat because you can't expect the economy to be doing perfectly well, but neither can you trust gold IOUs on platforms because of extreme disruptions and uncertainty. You can have real gold to store your value, though. You can take it wherever the war brings you. Ordinary folks won't be carrying gold in bars anyway.

In this aspect, I don't think Bitcoin could replace gold. You can certainly keep your value in Bitcoin but I don't think it's easy to access it during wartime. Surely, access to the internet, even electricity, wouldn't be easy. And if your phone breaks, would there be a store where you can buy a new one or a shop that fixes it?

[OcTradism]

So am basically asking do you think Bitcoin could replace gold in this aspect? Like in being a safe haven for investors in times of war or been a fully acceptable valued material for transactions generally in the world?

Bitcoin has many advantages compares to gold, as it is digital while gold is physical and it's with Bitcoin, you can split your coins to any fraction and broadcast it to Bitcoin mempools for your transactions and any business deal. With physical gold, it's more difficult to do that and it's just one of many advantages of Bitcoin against Gold.

The disadvantage of Bitcoin is it is younger than gold but with time, this disadvantage will become smaller and even disappear when Bitcoin get more matured and it has better adoption globally so that demand will outperform supply. It will make Bitcoin as a more attractive investment and store of value asset than gold.

If you want to explore more about differences between Bitcoin and gold, I recommend a book for you.
The bullish case for Bitcoin.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

As others have said, two different set of commodities here. Bitcoin though is touted to be a digital gold. But to this that they will be in parity? Possible. But it will take decades for Bitcoin just to be able keep up with Gold's marketcap.

So for me we shouldn't compare the two, if a investor is a Gold bug, so be it. If someone is a Bitcoin maximalist, then good. What's important is that we have the digital Gold in Bitcoin which is a good asset that most of us have been putting our money with. And you can used it whatever you want of it, store of value, hedge against inflation, sound money. etc.

[TastyChillySauce00]

For that to happen it needs shift of perception on the younger generation. The main reason why gold is always sought after in difficult time is because the older generation only knows and trust gold. Value for an asset that is conisdered store of value always come from the perception of the public in my opinion.
If enough people say bitcoin is store of value like gold and enough people hold it, it will become store of value just like gold.