The sharp rise in gold and silver prices this year is widely known. Even after correcting 7–9 percent from their lifetime highs, both metals have still delivered solid profits to investors. The stock market too, despite remaining below its peak and not showing extraordinary gains, has kept investors in the green. Meanwhile, Bitcoin — which usually delivers massive annual returns — has slipped badly this year, offering only about 30–35 percent returns before turning negative.

Bitcoin crossed the $125,000 mark in October but has been falling ever since. It has now started giving negative returns for 2025. This raises two big questions: Why has Bitcoin fallen so sharply? And how far has it lagged behind gold, silver, and equity indices?

Big fall in Bitcoin
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has witnessed a steep decline over the last month. Since touching its peak on October 7, the token has dropped nearly 40 percent. CoinMarketCap data shows Bitcoin recently fell to $89,970, compared to its October high of $126,198 — a drop of more than $36,000.

On the last trading day of the previous year, Bitcoin was at $93,429. This means the cryptocurrency has delivered a negative return of around 4 percent in 2025 so far. Notably, by October 7, it had gained nearly 35 percent — but all those gains have now evaporated.

Gold delivers massive profits
Gold has been the star performer this year. Even though prices have dropped 7–8 percent from the peak over the past month, gold is still up sharply. Gold futures were at ₹76,748 per 10 grams at the end of last year; today they stand at ₹1,23,601. This translates to a massive 61 percent return in 2025. On October 17, gold hit a record ₹1,32,294, delivering more than 72 percent returns before correcting.

Silver shines even brighter
Silver has also been a blockbuster performer. Even though it currently trades about ₹15,000 below its record high, it has delivered higher returns than gold and even outperformed platinum earlier this year. Silver futures were priced at ₹87,233 last year-end and are now at ₹1,56,800 per kg — an impressive 80 percent return. A month ago, silver touched ₹1,70,415, offering nearly 95 percent returns before the recent dip.

Sensex performs better than Bitcoin
While the stock market hasn’t shown exceptional growth, it has still outperformed Bitcoin by a wide margin. The Sensex has returned around 9 percent this year. It stood at 78,139 points last year-end and now trades near 85,096, gaining almost 7,000 points. The index had touched an all-time high of 85,978 on September 27 but has since slipped about 1 percent.

Nifty also outshines Bitcoin
Nifty’s performance has also been modest compared to gold and silver but much stronger than Bitcoin. Nifty closed last year at 23,644 and currently stands at 26,038 — a return of 10.12 percent in 2025. It had made a record high of 26,277 earlier, and even with the slight correction, remains well above Bitcoin’s performance.