From Cointelegraph

April 18, 2025 08:12:00 AM:

As gold prices surge, many Bitcoiners seek exposure to the precious metal. Physical gold’s quality, liquidity, and premium prices pose challenges. Buying Bitcoin is quicker and easier, with no need for vaults. Gold’s added costs include transportation, storage, and resale. Both assets are available in tokenized forms and ETFs.

Buying physical gold is complex compared to Bitcoin, according to industry experts. Maintaining quality, finding buyers, and dealing with widened spreads are issues faced by gold investors. Self-custodied Bitcoin avoids these problems. Traditional finance investors are skeptical of Bitcoin’s self-custody challenges and complexities.

Self-custody wallet providers offer onboarding sessions for a fee. Usability remains a key issue for self-custodial wallets. Holding a private key is emphasized as the only way to truly own a cryptocurrency. Simplified self-custody options are available but require a learning curve. Bitcoin and gold are not direct competitors, offering different benefits to investors.

Gold remains historically valuable, while Bitcoin builds future financial infrastructure. Spot gold price stands at $3,327, up 27% YTD. Bitcoin reached highs of $110,000 in December 2024 but is down 10% YTD, trading at $84,525. Gold offers stability, while Bitcoin aims for long-term financial innovation.

Read more at Cointelegraph: How do they stack up for investors?