- Bitcoin has significantly outpaced the S&P 500 over the past 14 years, with substantial gains in multiple years.
- Institutional investors, including Metaplanet and Michael Saylor, are massively increasing their Bitcoin holdings.
- Experts believe Bitcoin could become a top store of value, potentially surpassing the US Dollar in the process.
Bitwise co-founder Matt Hougan has spotted an interesting Bitcoin performance trend: BTC performed better than the S&P 500 in the past fourteen years. Hougan’s notable observations come amid the market turmoil and ongoing aggressive Bitcoin accumulation by corporate institutions.
Bitcoin Outperforms S&P 500 Over 14-Year Performance Trend
Data from Casebitcoin shows Bitcoin’s performance relative to the S&P 500 over a 14-year timeframe. In the first four years, Bitcoin generally posted a stronger performance than the S&P 500, although it occasionally lagged behind Gold. For example, Bitcoin gained 27% in the first year, beating the S&P 500’s modest 5% return. But it fell short of Gold’s 37%.
Bitcoin surged 173% the following year to outperform both Gold (61%) and the S&P 500 (29%). Similar patterns are seen in the third year, where Bitcoin’s 107% return surpassed Gold and the S&P 500’s by 64% and 22%, respectively.
In the fourth year, Bitcoin posted a 32% gain, slightly behind Gold at 85%. However, it outpaced the S&P 500 by a small margin of 3%. From the 5-year mark onward, Bitcoin’s performance becomes dramatically higher. In the fifth year, it returned 1,138%, while the S&P 500 rose by 92% and Gold by 85%. In the sixth, Bitcoin climbed 1,529% versus the S&P 500’s 84% and Gold’s 151%.
Impressively, the S&P 500 recorded a strong outing in the seventh year, with a 100% return. Still, Bitcoin posted a much higher gain at 916%. Notably, the trend continues with an 8-year return of 7,018% for Bitcoin, compared to 129% for the S&P 500 and 150% for Gold.
In the ninth year, Bitcoin returned an astonishing 19,280%. In contrast, the S&P 500 and Gold each rose by 157% and 161%. Bitcoin further widened the gap on the one-decade mark, gaining 36,936%, compared to the S&P 500’s 156% and Gold’s 170%. However, this figure dropped by 16,123% in the seventh year. Still, Bitcoin bested the S&P 500’s value of 88% and Gold’s value of 147%.
In the twelfth year, Bitcoin skyrocketed by an astonishing 102,265%, far exceeding the S&P 500’s 242% and Gold’s 134%. In the last two years, Bitcoin reached staggering gains of 1.7 million percent and 7.2 million percent, respectively. In contrast, the S&P 500 returned 290% and 306%, while Gold posted 94% and 116% in those same periods.
Institutional Investors Ramp Up Bitcoin Holdings
Several institutional investors are actively increasing their Bitcoin stacks, with most viewing BTC as a digital store of value. Metaplanet has increased its Bitcoin holding by another 319 BTC, taking its overall tally to 4,525 BTC. Michael Saylor’s Strategy also ramped up its Bitcoin collection by another 3,459 BTC, bringing its total acquisition to 531,644. To date, it is the highest BTC-holding corporate firm.
Top market commentators suggest that Bitcoin could soon topple other assets as the preferred store of value. Bitwise Investment Company CEO Hunter Horsley is one such proponent. Horsley posited that nations may soon dump the US Dollar for Bitcoin, given its lack of centralized governance and ease of acquisition. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $84,913 after a modest intraday climb.
