Bitcoin vs gold

Worked example

Over the five years to October 2026, bitcoin grew +4.6% a year and gold +18.2% a year, compounded. Their monthly returns over the same five years had a correlation of 0.09.

Yearly growth over each period

Compound yearly growth to the latest month both series share, from one US dollar price a month. A period shows only when both series reach back that far.

Correlation of monthly returns over the last five years: 0.09. A value of 1 would mean the two always moved together, 0 that their moves were unrelated and −1 that they always moved in opposite directions.

How it works

Yearly growth = (price at the end ÷ price at the start)^(1 ÷ years) − 1. Bitcoin's price for a month is its last daily close; gold's is the monthly figure from the datahub.io gold dataset. Correlation is the Pearson coefficient of the two series' month-on-month returns over the last 60 months. The calculator multiplies your amount by each series' end price ÷ its price in January of the start year.

Before you compare

One price a month hides the swings within it, and the result depends heavily on the start month. Holding gold costs storage or a fund fee, and holding either may be taxed; none of that is counted here. Past growth says nothing about future growth.