Bitcoin ETFs expected to triple gold ETF assets within three to five years, says Bloomberg analyst

Gold had a 20-year head start. It might not matter. Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, projects that US spot Bitcoin ETFs could see their assets under management triple that of gold ETFs within three to five years. The driving force behind the prediction is straightforward: younger investors are increasingly treating Bitcoin as their preferred store of value, and the money is following their conviction at a speed that has caught even optimistic forecasters off guard. The numbers that matter Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024. Within roughly 18 months, they had accumulated approximately $120 billion in total AUM, with net inflows surpassing $38 billion by mid-2025. To put that velocity in perspective, initial industry forecasts pegged first-year inflows at $10 billion to $15 billion. The actual figure blew past the high end of that range comfortably. Gold ETFs, by contrast, took over a decade to reach comparable asset levels. The first gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), debuted in 2004. It took roughly 22 years from that inception for gold ETFs collectively to hit milestones that Bitcoin ETFs are approaching in a fraction of the time. Balchunas draws a u...