Bitcoin and Gold Both Decline Year-to-Date in Historic First
Alina Collins
Bitcoin and gold have both posted negative returns year-to-date, ranking as the worst-performing major assets. According to Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at Creative Planning, this has never happened before in the same calendar year — the case for both 'hard assets' is being tested at once.
What exactly happened?
Bitcoin and gold are both in the red year-to-date, making them the worst-performing major asset classes this year.
Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at Creative Planning, noted that the two assets finishing last in the same calendar year is a market-history first.
This means → whether you picked "digital gold" or physical gold, both have lagged stocks, bonds, and other major asset classes so far this year.
Why is this so unusual?
Bitcoin is widely regarded as crypto's store-of-value asset; gold is the core holding in traditional safe-haven portfolios — they belong to entirely different systems, each playing the "hard asset" role in its own domain.
Historically their correlation is low; when one falls the other tends to rise, providing a natural hedge.
In plain terms = two separate "insurance policies" failed at the same time — that has never happened before.
What does this mean for ordinary investors?
Both hard assets underperforming simultaneously puts the "safe havens preserve value" allocation thesis under a twin stress test.
This reflects a market environment that may be hostile to all non-equity "safe harbour" assets, temporarily breaking the strategy of holding hard assets for diversification.
In plain terms = the popular playbook of "buy gold for protection, buy bitcoin for upside" has delivered losses on both sides this year.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.