With just a week left in 2025, it seems like a solid time to reflect on how Bitcoin has done so far this year and see how it stacks up against other major investments.
So, according to Google charts, Bitcoin's return year-to-date is sitting at a loss of -5.21% compared to where we started the year (as of December 22, 2025).
Here’s how other major asset classes performed this year, in terms of profit:
Surprisingly, even with hitting a new all-time high, it hasn’t been the best year for Bitcoin. This year really belonged to precious metals, with gold nearly hitting a +70% return and silver skyrocketing to almost +120%.
I’m starting to think we might be seeing a shift in how people view Bitcoin moving away from just a high-risk, high-reward thing to something that could be viewed as more stable. Especially since every halving might have less and less effect on supply, potentially ending those typical 4-year cycles.
Just wanted to share this for some context, since a lot of folks seem to think BTC is still ahead of the game compared to other markets. Open to thoughts.
it wasnt the best but it also wasnt the worst since bitcoin didnt really decline that much it pretty much worked sideways
it was a boring year almost it didnt have extreme highs nor lows so it wasnt too bad in my opinion will bitcoin finally stabilize from here on out?
Compare and contrast is fair method to get a good perspective vs other value standards so I agree with the idea but BTC will always be extremely high performance compared to most and this year doesnt negate that especially.
It was not the best year, greater hopes were certainly there. I asked people a year ago where they thought BTC might go and only one or two thought it would merely remain in this area.
The reason I refuse to take 2025 as a negative year for Bitcoin despite the figure showing a minus figure, is again by contrast to many other years BTC experienced were properly negative in no small measure.
This year overall was consolidation, a compact of the volume in this area will serve future gains and the process is not over. We cant say immediately where the support will turn concrete but that is basically what's happening, a positive process and it'll be a positive in conclusion imo.
Interest rates are at record highs, unemployment rates are rising accordingly, drums of war are beating around the world, active warfare is ongoing in many places, and experts are talking about a world war... So, it's been a tough year for risky assets. We could even say that Bitcoin has performed well given the current price stability. Naturally, precious metals are also at the top of the list. However, the system is clear. There is no reason not to continue to hold onto hope for the future. The DXY is moving sideways, gold prices are rising but not as aggressively as before, risk-seekers are buying silver instead of gold, I think we are in a position-taking phase, and I think gradual buying is very appropriate for both classic stock markets and Bitcoin...
Viewing from how the market reaction this year we may likely have that feeling that a lot of things actually happens but, my happiness is that we were able to have a new ATH which rose to around 126k. Although if not for some circumstances we could have actually recorded several ATHs due to the market reaction and higher selling pressure on which is one thing that may caused the side slow down of the market.
The rate cut definitely had major impact on the 2025 market. Gold currently is on the peak breaking new records as we speak. We all know why that is happening.. inflation on the rise, after falling 2% earlier this year it has now climbed back to almost 2.8%..
To me I don't see bitcoin doing so bad in 2025. Even though we had a bad year ending it still did better than its last cycle.. what I'm expecting from bitcoin is just a short recession and the next few months into 2026 would do better .
Looking at the overall picture, Bitcoin remains the best-performing asset in the history of the financial market, and it will maintain that title in the long term. However, we cannot deny that in the short and medium term, there are times when Bitcoin's performance is slightly weaker than other assets and investments. This year is proof of that, and we need to acknowledge it.
Furthermore, another interesting point is that, according to the market's 4-year cycle, we will have 3 green years and 1 red year. Therefore, if Bitcoin fails to return to $94k before the end of this year, that cycle could be broken.
Image source: Tradingview
Exactly. And that perception will depend greatly on what happens in 2026. Now, one narrative is that as liquidity grows, we will enter a bull market, but the same people who say this were predicting spectacular returns for this year. If the return in 2026 is negative, perceptions will change significantly. And even if it isn't, if it stays around $100K, it will change expectations about future returns, especially if a lot of money continues to flow into gold.
The second part of what you say is not so clear. Consider that Bitcoin has a very short history. What happens between the 15th and 30th years of an asset's existence may differ greatly from what happened in the first 15 years.
As I mentioned multiple times before, I would very much welcome a shift of perception of Bitcoin from a highly speculative asset with potentially very high rewards, to something more stable and gold-like (although gold hasn't been acting like gold recently, but that's a different story).
The original concept of Bitcoin was to make it a robust currency, a hedge against inflation and recession, but right now it's the opposite. Its performance is highly correlated with traditional stock markets and is highly dependent on positive sentiment, interest rates etc.
Yup, but only if you consider the price from the beginning, when it was trading for close to nothing. But that's not very useful for the current-day investors, who are interested in the future (not past) growth potential.
If we look at the return from the previous cycle's ATH to the 2025 ATH, that gives an average annual return of around 21%. Not bad but not great either, considering the high-risk and the time it took to break the new ATH. There are safer instruments that yield better returns with less risk involved.
There is a second derivative of this, the bitcoin treasury companies that have sprung up by the hundreds, copying Strategy's model. This model is based on the assumption that Bitcoin will appreciate by an average of 30% over the next 20 years. But in that model, the early years would see higher returns, such as between 40% and 50% now, and closer to 20% in 20 years. If we have a disappointing 2026, that model will be dismantled. I think that in principle it will affect all companies except Strategy and a few others, and in the medium to long term we will see.
The average appreciation of 30% is an assumption. If the assumption fails, the model fails. Without being alarmist, I would not rule out a period of four years in which the price remains more or less flat. This has happened with gold and other assets. It could happen with Bitcoin.
rrently the price of gold has risen so significantly making it the highest-performing market in all circles. Even if a decline occurs the price won't drop much. Many people are selling some of their gold but this is because the current economic factors are hampering many people's lives. However we are just waiting to see whether the price of gold will fall again after Christmas. Typically after the celebration of this day there is good news for all market conditions. One example is the gold market which can sometimes drop by a few percent allowing many people to continue buying for investment purposes by saving and increasing their gold holdings. When life changes again selling becomes a way to cover daily expenses.
Regarding Bitcoin many people hope that by 2026 the market price will increase slightly. Therefore some are patient and refrain from selling immediately. They believe that despite the current situation they still have other funds saved and can use them for daily needs. They are patient and refrain from selling some of their Bitcoin holdings reasoning that market conditions don't always stay this way. There are bound to be differences. When the market is down today it's important to be at the forefront of profit-making regardless of the market conditions.
Yeah, bitcoin did not have a significant bullish year as expected. We entered this year with a bullish action which resulted to have negative performance when calculating about year to year performance. Still, we got a new ATH like we peaked about 2x from the previous ATH which are good thing about 2025 but for outside people, they need only data which are as per their pre-defined frame work which may portrait bitcoin as a negative return asset in 2025.
Only after this topic, I realize that 2025 is going to be another bearish year for bitcoin if we do not have any significant rally in the remaining days of this year. Market discounted the bullish rally in 2024 itself which impacted to have 2025 as a bearish year, really not expected one .
There is this this famous saying that 'every action, has a reaction'. So this isn't just a feeling alone. Not only you but all of us Bitcoin lovers are happy by the time Bitcoin hit $126k, as it was another achievement for Bitcoin and then many might have sold to enjoy a massive profit. That must be one of the circumstances that prevents the price to rise more and make it dump heavily instead.
Others can still sell because of some circumstances. It is either they will be needing the money in no time and then waiting to sell later on will reduce their money, or they are simply scared that the some circumstances will crash the Bitcoin market even harder.
Overall I think it was a pretty good year. We saw a new ATH, the pullback wasn't big, actually it was much smaller than expected. For traders, the high volatility made it profitable. For holders, it was a good year too since the price didn't drop too much. Those who wanted to were able to add coins at prices that aren't considered very high. If next year goes in a similar way, that would be great. The best way is to invest regularly without paying too much attention to disaster scenarios.
The rise in price of bitcoin that made us saw the break of the all time high and also being the bull run year makes many of us to have a perception that bitcoin has done tremendously well this season and has brought about good return on investment for many people that have invested into it. These data clearly shows the overall performance of bitcoin and no one could have ever thought we will be ending the year in this manner with bitcoin growth being on a decline. The performance of other metals was what not many of us paid attention to and many of us may not know that theyve performed well this season and our focus was only on bitcoin to keep rising and breaking ATH.
It's an eye opener on the need to diversify our assets or investments. I am sure that real estate performs very well in my country. Many people who bought land and houses made good returns. Bitcoin is a viable asset; however, we shouldn't focus on just Bitcoin because there are still opportunities in other investments.
Well I understand your view but the irregularities and manipulation really destroyed alot
Government interference brought Bitcoin into the light
But also made it easily affected by geopolitical changes.
In all Bitcoin performance this year was disappointing when compared to the supposed positive news
That came up.
There are still people that thinks that BTC did not run very well or it could have done more if not because of some circumstances. Maybe these people are only late on the party. For those that are happy with the performance of BTC, they are the ones that can expect that BTC can now dump after a long pump.
This is a Bitcoin/crypto community, so it make sense that our focus are mostly on them, but maybe some are still into diversifying, that they also follow other investment instruments like metals. Sometimes, there are still post about metals here in the forum. So even if we are not into them, we are still aware about their performances.
2025 was a solid victory for precious metals but bitcoin did pretty well too imo. It did like 200% or something after Trump got elected and hit $124k or something. Btc gave lots of chances to cash out. If people missed their chance, they can wait the next ATH and theyll probably be glad if they wait for it because the next btc bull run will be more brutal than ever. I expect btc to reach $1 million till 2030 and thats a big opportunity.
Sure gold and silver will probably keep making all time highs too because why not The USD is apparently dying. It would be strange if they didnt.
At this point Id worry more about the world war rather than bitcoins price performance. Things are getting heated fast.
To say 2025 was a very bad year would be unfair to Bitcoin; it wasn't a bad year, nor was it a good year. At least it was a year in which we saw an all-time high. What makes it bad? Precious metals increased significantly during this period, especially gold and silver, while Bitcoin's price lagged far behind theirs this year. I hope 2026 will be a much better year.