Bitcoin is up 90% since the start of the year

Bitcoin is up 90% since the start of the year

Bitcoin is at $55,000 today as of the time of writing. This means it has risen by around 90% since the beginning of 2021.

While that's already impressive, what's even more remarkable is BTC's performance when compared to other well-known investment vehicles such as some of the most popular stock market indices, the largest companies in the world, and precious metals such as gold and silver.

BTC vs. everyone else – YTD 2021. TradingView

S&P500 and Nasdaq left behind

The primary cryptocurrency entered 2021 at around $28.9k before skyrocketing to $65k in April, becoming its current all-time high. A few turbulent months followed, prompted by FUD, first from Elon Musk and later from China.

After hitting its bottom below $30,000 in July, BTC continued its upward trend and has almost doubled its value at $55,000 at the time of writing this. More specifically, this means it is up almost 90% year-to-date.

While speculation runs wild as to where it may end the year, at $100,000 that is prevailing opinion, it is worth examining how Bitcoin compares to other assets from the more traditional financial sectors.

Let's start with what is probably the most popular stock market index - the S&P 500, which tracks the performance of the 500 largest companies listed on US stock exchanges. It has actually performed well this year - it started at 3,700, set a new ATH at 4,520 in early September, but has retreated slightly to 4,391 at Friday's close. That means it's up about 18% in ten months.

At the same time, the Nasdaq Composite Index has recorded somewhat more modest growth since the beginning of the year - just under 15%. Interestingly, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen by a very similar percentage over the same period.

Let's look at individual stocks of the most famous companies in the world. Apple's shares are up 10% YTD, Microsoft's YTD ROI is 35%, Amazon's just 3%, Facebook's (23%) and Tesla's are up 7.5%.

Google (Alphabet, symbol GOOG) is among the best performers, with a remarkable 61% increase year-to-date. Still, none of them have come close to matching Bitcoin in terms of annual profits.

Bitcoin vs. Gold vs. Silver

Considered by many to be digital gold, it is also worth comparing the cryptocurrency to the yellow metal and perhaps silver. After all, silver’s market cap is still larger than Bitcoin’s according to to 8marketcap.com.

The two metals are likely to be particularly popular these days due to global economic uncertainty and rising inflation. However, gold – historically probably the most widely used store of value – has been declining since the beginning of the year. It is down more than 7%, although it was slight in October.

Silver's situation is even worse as it has fallen 17% against the dollar since the start of the year.

Consequently, at least as of October, neither of the two most popular precious metals can even come close to Bitcoin in terms of annual gains. Therefore, it is not a big surprise that many prominent names such as: Anthony Scaramucci, Steve Wozniak and Michael Saylor have described Bitcoin as a better option than gold.

It is also worth noting that cryptocurrency became the best-performing asset in the last century with an ROI of 8,900,000%.

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