Anthony Pompliano, Founder & CEO of Professional Capital Management, has sparked a debate by claiming that gold has been a “disastrous investment since 2020.” Pompliano shared data to show gold’s performance as compared to Bitcoin over a period of five years.
Gold vs Bitcoin
According to Pompliano, gold has lost approximately 84% of its purchasing power when measured against the leading cryptocurrency, suggesting that Bitcoin has significantly outperformed the traditional safe-haven asset in recent years.
Supporting his claim with a chart created by Phil Rosen with data sourced from Bloomberg, Pompliano emphasized that while gold has remained relatively stable in US dollar terms, it has collapsed in bitcoin terms – with one Bitcoin now buying around 16 times more gold than it did in 2020.
“Gold has collapsed 84% in bitcoin terms since 2020,” read the text on the graph shared by the American investor on X. “While gold has been stable in US dollar terms, it’s lost nearly all its value in bitcoin terms over the last five years. One bitcoin now buys ~ 16x more gold today than 2020.”
Framing Bitcoin as the new financial benchmark or “hurdle rate,” he urged investors to recognize the shift. “If you can’t beat it, you have to buy it,” declared Pompliano.
A hurdle rate is the minimum rate of return a project or investment must achieve to be considered worthwhile.
A controversial statement
Pompliano’s take proved polarizing on X – especially coming at a time when gold recently hit a record high of $4,002.53 in spot trading.
“If you torture the data enough it will reveal whatever you want to see,” wrote X user Kolby Smith wrote.
“Your posts are always filled with facts and knowledge, but this is a case where your “how” was misguided. Gold isn’t ‘disastrous’, it’s just not as good as BTC in the timeframe YOU chose. This appears to be intentionally misleading which I doubt is your intent,” another X user added.
American stockbroker Peter Schiff also took issue with Pompliano’s post. “By that “logic,” every other investment has been a disaster since 2020. Gold has done much better than the S&P or real estate since 2020, despite falling versus Bitcoin. But that arbitrary time period proves nothing about gold and certainly doesn’t mean anyone has to buy Bitcoin,” he commented.
“Bitcoin has lost almost half its purchasing power in Palantir terms in the last 5 years. Do you hear how stupid you sound?” a user asked.