Gold Ounces per Bitcoin
How many troy ounces of gold does one Bitcoin buy? In January 2014 the answer was approximately 0.63 oz: less than one ounce of gold per BTC. In May 2026 the answer is approximately 32 oz: 32 ounces of gold per BTC. The 50x-plus ratio gain over twelve years is the cleanest read on the relative performance of the two non-sovereign monetary alternatives to fiat currency: physical gold's 5,000-year supply discipline versus Bitcoin's 16-year algorithmic supply discipline. Weekly cadence, derived from Yahoo Finance gold spot (GC=F) and BTC USD.
Chart
Troy ounces of gold per Bitcoin. BTC USD spot divided by gold spot USD per troy ounce. Weekly cadence from January 2014. Logarithmic Y-axis to capture the multi-cycle ratio expansion.
What the chart shows
The ratio (BTC USD spot) / (gold USD per troy ounce), computed weekly from Jan 2014 onwards. The Y-axis is logarithmic so the multi-order-of-magnitude trajectory is readable. Three regimes visible. (1) 2014-2017: ratio climbs from 0.6 oz to ~ 10 oz as BTC USD runs from $770 to $14K while gold stayed in the $1,200-1,400 range. (2) 2018-2020: ratio plateaus in the 3-15 oz range during the BTC bear and gold's slow grind higher. (3) 2021-2024: ratio breaks out to 30+ oz at the post-COVID and post-Trump-election BTC peaks. (4) 2024-2026: ratio plateaus near 32-35 oz as gold itself rallies into the BTC outperformance, compressing the ratio.
Hard money vs hard money: the asset-class debate
| Date | BTC USD | Gold USD / oz | Oz / BTC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-01-01 | $770 | $1,220 | 0.63 oz |
| 2017-12-15 | $17,500 | $1,260 | 13.9 oz |
| 2018-12-15 | $3,400 | $1,240 | 2.7 oz |
| 2020-12-01 | $19,000 | $1,795 | 10.6 oz |
| 2021-04-15 | $63,500 | $1,770 | 35.9 oz |
| 2021-11-09 | $68,500 | $1,830 | 37.4 oz |
| 2022-11-09 | $15,700 | $1,720 | 9.1 oz |
| 2024-10-28 | $70,000 | $2,790 | 25.1 oz |
| 2025-01-01 | $93,500 | $2,663 | 35.1 oz (peak) |
| 2026-05-01 | $132,800 | $4,080 | 32.5 oz |
Why Australian investors care
- Both are debasement hedges. Gold and Bitcoin sit in the same portfolio role: a non-sovereign monetary alternative held to hedge fiat-currency debasement. AU-resident investors who hold gold (via GOLD ETF, QAU, PMGOLD, physical bullion through Perth Mint or ABC Bullion) and Bitcoin (via CoinSpot, IBIT-equivalent AU spot ETFs, or self-custody) benefit from tracking the relative ratio.
- Allocation re-weighting signal. When the ratio compresses (gold outperforming BTC), tactical reallocators add BTC. When the ratio expands (BTC outperforming gold), tactical reallocators add gold. The 2014-2024 trend favoured BTC strongly; the 2024-2026 plateau and modest compression favours gold rebalance. Institutional debasement portfolios typically maintain a 60-70 / 30-40 gold-BTC weighting and reset weights when the ratio moves more than 30 percent from target.
- AU-currency context. Both gold and Bitcoin are quoted in USD globally. AU-resident investors holding GOLD or QAU ASX-listed ETFs get USD-denominated gold exposure plus the AUD/USD currency layer. The same applies to AU-resident BTC holdings denominated in AUD via local exchanges. The gold-oz-per-BTC ratio is currency-neutral (USD divided by USD).
- Cycle context. The ratio peaked alongside the BTC AUD price peaks in April 2021, November 2024, and (likely) the next cycle peak. Gold's structural rally since 2024 means the next ratio peak may not exceed the 35-oz cycle high even if BTC AUD reaches higher absolute levels. Useful for asymmetric-position-sizing math: BTC outperforming gold is not a guarantee.
Methodology
- BTC USD source. Yahoo Finance ticker BTC-USD (CoinMarketCap weighted index), weekly close.
- Gold source. Yahoo Finance ticker GC=F (COMEX gold futures front-month). Tracks LBMA AM/PM fix to within basis points on a daily-close basis. The seed and live overlay both use this single source for consistency.
- Ratio calculation. BTC USD close divided by gold USD per oz close, for each weekly observation where both series have data. Output rounded to 0.0001 oz.
- Refresh cadence. Weekly on every build (yahoo-markets.json is refreshed earlier in the build chain by scripts/fetch-yahoo-markets.mjs, and scripts/fetch-wave7.mjs recomputes the ratio on top).
- Static-first. If yahoo-markets.json is unreachable, the chart continues to render against the last-known-good snapshot in assets/data/wave7.json.
Related tools
- Gold spot with Bitcoin overlay - the two-line absolute-price view.
- Sydney median house in BTC - Bitcoin vs Sydney property.
- Australian national median house in BTC - Bitcoin vs AU property nationally.
- ASX 200 priced in BTC - Bitcoin vs Australian equities.
- Bitcoin log regression (AUD) - the BTC-AUD fair-value reference.
Frequently asked questions
Troy ounces of gold per one Bitcoin. Computed as BTC USD spot divided by gold spot USD per troy ounce. Falling line = gold outperforms Bitcoin (BTC loses purchasing power against gold). Rising line = Bitcoin outperforms gold (BTC gains purchasing power against gold). The series uses weekly cadence with both prices sourced from Yahoo Finance on every site build.
Gold is the 5,000-year reference unit for non-sovereign monetary value. Pricing Bitcoin in gold answers the question 'is Bitcoin actually replacing gold as the hard-money asset?'. The 0.63-oz starting point in Jan 2014 reflected Bitcoin's tiny market cap (~ $9B vs gold's ~ $7T = 0.13 percent of gold). The 32-oz peak in 2024-2025 reflects Bitcoin's ~ 15 percent of gold market cap. The ratio is the cleanest single quantitative answer to 'how much of a substitute has Bitcoin become for gold?'.
Approximately 35 oz / BTC in late October 2024, coincident with the post-Trump-election BTC rally. BTC USD was ~ $98K and gold spot ~ $2,790 / oz at that point. The 35-oz peak preceded a modest decline as gold itself broke out aggressively in 2025 (reaching ~ $4,000+ per oz), compressing the ratio back toward 32-33 oz.
Three reasons. (1) Central-bank gold buying: 2022-2025 saw the largest sustained central-bank gold accumulation in modern history, with China + Russia + Turkey + India together buying 1,000+ tonnes per year. (2) De-dollarisation: BRICS-aligned economies have shifted reserves into gold to reduce USD-system exposure. (3) Real-rate compression: declining real interest rates make zero-yield gold relatively more attractive. Gold's rise from $1,800 to $4,000+ over 2023-2026 is the cleanest 'monetary-debasement-priced' rally in two decades, and explains why the BTC/gold ratio has stopped climbing despite BTC's own absolute rally.
Different roles. Gold has 5,000 years of survival history, is held by every central bank on Earth, is impossible to confiscate by deletion or seizure if physical, and acts as the universal monetary fallback. Bitcoin has 16 years of operating history, has supply discipline that's algorithmic rather than mining-cost-driven, is digitally portable, and has dramatically faster compounding. Most institutional debasement-allocation theses now hold both: 60-70 percent gold for capital preservation, 30-40 percent Bitcoin for asymmetric upside. The ratio chart helps allocators time relative weight shifts.
Yahoo Finance via the public v8/finance/chart endpoint. Gold spot: ticker GC=F (COMEX gold futures front-month, tracks LBMA AM/PM fix to within basis points). Bitcoin USD: ticker BTC-USD (CoinMarketCap weighted index). Both fetched weekly on every site build. The ratio is recomputed in the seed script on every build so the chart always reflects current data.
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