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Housing: Where is the Money Coming From?
Tags: Ideas in Finance
Posted in: Ideas in Finance
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Silver and Gold Skyrocket… Will Bitcoin Catch Up?

What a year 2025 was for gold and silver. And what a start to 2026.

Silver ended 2024 at around $47 (Australian) per ounce. 2024 was a good year for silver. It recorded a gain of over 30 percent for the year. But that was nothing. By March 2025, Silver was over $50. It paused for breath through the middle part of the year. Then it broke free. By the end of August, it was over $60. By the end of September, it was over $70. It broke through $80 in October, slipped back a little, broke through $90 in December, then broke through $100, then $110, then $120. The year ended with silver around $109. A 132 percent gain for the year.

Gold started 2024 a little over $3,000 (Australian) per ounce. It ended 2024 a little over $4,200 per ounce. That’s a 40 percent return. Like silver, the party was just getting started. By April 2025, gold was over $5,200 per ounce. It too paused through the middle part of the year. It eventually broke through $5,500 in September. It pushed all the way to $6,700 in October before slipping back to $6,000. It ended the year around $6,400. A 53 percent return for the year.

Both silver and gold have started 2026 in startling fashion. Gold is trading above $7,300 per ounce. That’s 15 percent higher in just one month (we are writing this on January 27, 2026). Silver is trading at $160. That’s 45 percent up in just a little over three weeks. For metals that showed very little price action for many years, the recent period of time has been a vindication for their long-term supporters. What the moves are portending for the future is a matter for debate. Some see the silver price, in particular, as evidence of a supply shortage (silver is required for industrial purposes). Some see the prices of both metals as evidence of fiat currency debasement, possibly indicating an imminent financial crisis, and some trace the moves to geopolitical factors, including the possibility that there is some sort of powerplay being exercised by the Americans vis-à-vis the Europeans and particularly the London banks. Of course, conjectures are as easily printed as fiat dollars!

One interesting thread of the arguments (and conjectures) is where this leaves Bitcoin. Bitcoin enjoyed a very successful 2025, politically speaking. The new Trump administration passed legislation that clarified many aspects of the cryptocurrency industry, making business in this space much easier and less risky (which is good for the asset prices of those companies involved in the sector). A more sweeping set of regulatory frameworks is, however, on pause after failing to attract support of major industry players, including Coinbase.

On the markets, Bitcoin had a mixed year. In fact, most supporters would say it was disappointing. On the back of Donald Trump’s victory, Bitcoin broke through $100,000 (US dollars) for the first time in late 2024. It took a tumble, with the rest of the markets in the first part of the year, moving back to $75,000 in April. It then rarely took a backward step on its way to $124,000 in October. It then rarely took a forward step as it slipped all the way back to the mid-$80,000s.

Of course, some have argued since the beginning that Bitcoin is “digital gold”. As such, its failure to match physical gold has attracted a fair amount of “told you so’s” from the gold supporters. However, the relative underperformance raises the question of whether Bitcoin can now be expected to catch up to gold and silver. Money can’t be everywhere at once. Gold moved sooner. Then silver caught up, having a bigger year than gold. Bitcoin fell behind. Will Bitcoin now catch up? If it does, it will have to be a very significant move, possibly to at least $150,000. Of course, nobody can say whether it will. It might simply fall further behind gold and silver or, what is also possible, gold and silver run out of steam and take a tumble of their own.

Discussion Question

How have gold, silver, and Bitcoin performed in the 2020s? What do you think will happen next?

27 January 2026