The Multi-Trillion Dollar Grudge Match
Peter Schiff is at it again. It is 2025, and despite gold finally waking up from its decade-long slumber to hit $4,533 an ounce, the world’s most famous gold bug is still shouting into the digital void about Bitcoin’s supposed demise. The catalyst for this latest round of financial mud-slinging? A staggering set of data points that highlights the absolute gulf between the “boomer rock” and the “orange coin.”
Analyst Adam Livingston recently dropped a bomb on the timeline, noting that since 2015, Bitcoin has appreciated by approximately 27,700%. For those keeping score at home, silver and gold managed 405% and 283% respectively in the same window. Even if you are a “crybaby”—Livingston’s words, not mine—who wants to ignore Bitcoin’s early, wild-west years, the outperformance remains a statistical anomaly in the history of finance. Bitcoin didn’t just beat the metals; it essentially moved into a different dimension of value capture.
Schiff’s retort was predictable: “Look at the last four years.” He claims Bitcoin’s time has passed. It’s a classic goalpost-shifting maneuver we’ve seen since the 2017 ICO bubble and the 2022 FTX collapse. Every time Bitcoin takes a breather to digest a 10x move, the skeptics mistake a pit stop for a graveyard. But while the pundits argue, the underlying macro engine is humming a tune that favors scarcity—regardless of whether that scarcity is digital or physical.
Supply Elasticity: The Hidden Technical Divide
To understand why Bitcoin continues to outpace gold even as gold hits record highs, you have to look at the plumbing. Matt Golliher, co-founder of Orange Horizon Wealth, hit on a point that most retail traders completely miss: supply elasticity. When the price of gold or silver surges, the world doesn’t just sit still. Mines that were unprofitable at $1,800 an ounce suddenly become gold mines (literally) at $4,500.
Higher prices incentivize more extraction. We are seeing it right now; silver approaching $80 has triggered a rush to reopen dormant sites. This increased supply eventually acts as a natural drag on the price. It is the basic “cure for high prices is high prices” mantra of the commodities world. Bitcoin operates on a fundamentally different piece of math. When the price of Bitcoin surges, the network doesn’t produce more Bitcoin. The difficulty adjustment just makes it harder to mine the same fixed amount. You cannot “mine more” Bitcoin into existence just because you’re willing to spend more on electricity. This technical decoupling is why the 27,700% gain happened in the first place.
This mirrors the 2020 DeFi summer, where we saw the first real institutional recognition that “programmed scarcity” is superior to “geological scarcity.” In 2025, that theory has become a hard-coded reality for most macro funds.
The Fed’s Gift to Scarcity
The current rally in both camps isn’t happening in a vacuum. The US Dollar Index (DXY) is currently bleeding out, down roughly 10% for the year. The market is smelling blood in the water ahead of the Fed’s projected easing in 2026. When the central bank prepares to turn the taps back on, the smartest money in the room stops looking for yield and starts looking for bunkers.
Zaner Metals strategist Peter Grant pointed out that geopolitical tensions and thin trading have fueled these sharp swings. But let’s be real: this is a debasement play. Whether you’re holding a bar of gold or a hardware wallet, you’re betting against the long-term viability of the dollar. Arthur Hayes has been banging this drum for years—Fed easing and a weakening dollar lift all “scarce” boats. We are seeing a simultaneous flight to safety and a flight to quality. The difference is that one of these assets can be sent across the planet in ten minutes for a few bucks, while the other requires an armored truck and a hefty insurance premium.
It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game
There is a persistent myth in the crypto community that gold has to die for Bitcoin to live. James Check, lead analyst at Glassnode, recently pushed back on this “low-T” thinking. The data suggests that Bitcoin and metals don’t actually need to trade against each other. They are both reacting to the same stimulus: the slow-motion car crash of global fiat currencies.
Macro strategist Lyn Alden has noted that these assets aren’t strict rivals in a portfolio. A sophisticated investor doesn’t choose between a fire extinguisher and a smoke detector; they buy both. The “Bitcoin vs. Gold” debate is largely a performance for social media engagement. On-chain facts show that long-term holders of Bitcoin often have significant overlaps with hard-asset traditionalists. They are two different expressions of the same skepticism toward centralized financial planning.
In fact, the surge in gold to $4,533 is actually a bullish signal for Bitcoin. It confirms that the market’s appetite for non-sovereign assets is at an all-time high. Gold is the “gateway drug” for traditional investors; once they realize it can move 200%, they eventually start looking at the asset that can move 20,000%.
Risk Assessment: The Volatility Tax
Before you go “all-in” on the Livingston thesis, remember that Bitcoin’s 27,000% gain didn’t come for free. It was paid for in the blood of traders who couldn’t handle 80% drawdowns. Gold and silver, despite their lower ceilings, offer a level of price stability that Bitcoin still lacks. If you are looking for a place to park your grandmother’s life savings, gold’s “dullness” is its greatest feature.
We also have to consider the regulatory shadow. While the 2024 ETF approvals gave Bitcoin a veneer of respectability, the threat of “chokepoint” style regulations still looms if the DXY continues to slide. Central banks don’t like competition. They might tolerate gold because it’s easy to seize and hard to move, but a decentralized, borderless currency is a different kind of threat entirely.
The bottom line? Bitcoin is the apex predator of the last decade, and the technical structure of its issuance makes it likely to remain so. But don’t dismiss the metals just because they aren’t posting “moon” numbers. In a world of 10% dollar devaluations, anything you can’t print is a winning hand. Just don’t expect Peter Schiff to admit it when Bitcoin hits its next milestone.
- Bitcoin’s 10-year growth: 27,701%
- Silver’s 10-year growth: 405%
- Gold’s 10-year growth: 283%
- 2025 Gold Price Peak: $4,533/oz
- 2025 Silver Price Peak: ~$80/oz
