Summary:
⚈ It outperformed stocks and crypto amid market-wide uncertainty and instability
⚈ Volatile price swings make gold resemble crypto in recent trading behavior
Thanks to the commodity’s rise in 2025, there would have been few more lucrative trades than investing $1,000 in gold at the very start of the year.
In just over four months, the precious metal has rallied 28.65% from the New Year price of $2,658 to its May 6 press time price of $3,376.
Such a setup means that traders who elected to buy $1,000 worth of the yellow metal at the start of 2025 would have made $286.50 in profit, making their investment worth a total of $1,286.50.
Though gold has been performing well for more than a year and is 46.69% in the green in the 12-month chart and 97.96% up in the five-year chart, this year is somewhat peculiar because it significantly outperformed most other popular assets.
Gold outperforms most other major assets in 2025
For example, the benchmark S&P 500 index is down 3.72% in the year-to-date (YTD) chart, while the superstar stock of 2024, the semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), plunged 17.71% within the same time frame.
The situation is much the same with cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin (BTC) being just 1.34% above its January 1 price at press time on May 6.
Is Gold trading like a cryptocurrency in 2025?
Gold’s performance in 2025 has also been specific due to the speed of the rise and the relatively violent swings. It took the commodity more than a decade to move from $1,000 to $2,000 and more than two years to move from $2,000 to $3,000, and, at based on it’s recent price dynamics, it could well hit $4,000 before the summer is over according to some analysts.
The magnitude of the moves and the overall volatility – the yellow metal stood at almost exactly $3,000 30 days ago, climbed to $3,500 in late April, plunged to $3,200 on May 1, and surged back to $3,376 by press time – can be attributed to the overall state of the economy.
Since 2025 started, instability has been the order of the day as President Donald Trump inaugurated an era of trade-war-driven uncertainty for regular investors seeking both safety and profits in the turmoil, and for nation-states reconsidering their dollar-denominated reserves and investments in the U.S. national debt.
