Gold ETFs Glitter as Crypto Investors Get the Jitters

Overshadowed this past year by cryptocurrency ETFs, gold ETFs are getting their shine back.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is up by almost 12% this year, sharply outperforming the 7% loss for the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the 29% drop for the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA).

Since the start of the year, investors have plowed over $4 billion into the top gold ETFs, according to etf.com data. A similar amount has gone into spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds so far in 2025.

However, while crypto ETFs have been shedding assets in recent weeks, investors have been accelerating their purchases of gold. Almost $2 billion went into GLD on Monday alone, according to etf.com’s ETF Pulse Tool. 

Over the past week, $3.9 billion went into GLD, another $532 million went into the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) $203 million found its way to the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (GLDM).


Source: etf.com

In contrast, $1.2 billion has come out of cryptocurrency ETFs over the past week, led by a $12 million outflow from the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC).

Two Distinct Assets

George Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at State Street Global Advisors, recently shared some insights with etf.com on how gold and bitcoin are two distinct assets with very different drivers.

"The main reason why investors buy gold is not so much because they're banking on appreciation in the price," he said. "It has more to do with gold's protective attributes. Gold offers diversification in a properly balanced portfolio that can be matched by precious few other assets."

He emphasizes gold's historical effectiveness during periods of sustained inflation, market volatility, and dollar depreciation, referencing specific market crises:

"Gold has offered some protection against declines in the equity market—I’d point to Black Monday in 1987, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis of 2008, and Covid in 2020. In all those cases, equities went down dramatically and gold went up dramatically."

In contrast to bitcoin, Milling-Stanley stresses that gold remains largely uncorrelated with stocks and bonds, while bitcoin has shown significant correlation with equities, especially post-2020:

"Since 2020, bitcoin has been much more closely correlated with the S&P 500 than I would feel comfortable adding into a portfolio," he said. "I like uncorrelated assets rather than strongly correlated assets. Gold is primarily bought for protection, but in some years, it has given very good returns. Bitcoin is all about returns, and that's a very different job."

This fundamental difference in purpose underscores why gold ETFs, like GLD, continue to attract robust investment flows, particularly as cryptocurrency ETFs experience outflows.