As the new year draws near, renewed attention is being given to the long-term effects of Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) when applied to Bitcoin (BTC), based on a decade’s worth of price data.
Imagine an investor who consistently purchased $50 worth of Bitcoin at the start of every month. Over time, this disciplined approach would have resulted in a substantial accumulation of Bitcoin and significant growth in their initial investment.
This evaluation considers monthly Bitcoin prices from January 2016 through December 2025. The strategy involves buying $50 worth of BTC on the first day of each month throughout this period.
With these monthly contributions totaling $6,000 over ten years, Bitcoin’s price has experienced wide fluctuations — from just a few hundred dollars in 2016 to soaring highs during the 2021 bull run, followed by sharp declines in 2022 and new peaks emerging by 2025.
When all purchases are aggregated, the investor would hold roughly 0.43 BTC. Given that Bitcoin currently trades near $87,000 per coin, this holding translates into an approximate market value between $37,000 and $38,000. Simply put, a total investment of $6,000 has appreciated more than sixfold over this timeframe.
The same DCA approach applied to gold reveals a steadier but less dramatic return profile. Assuming identical monthly investments—$50 at each month’s start beginning January 2016—the investor accumulates gold steadily over ten years as well.
Throughout these 120 months with total contributions summing up to $6,000 invested in gold, prices fluctuated between around $1,100 and $1,300 per ounce during early years (2016-2018), then gained momentum post-2020 reaching record levels by 2024-2025.
The cumulative amount purchased amounts to approximately 3.4 ounces of gold. &&&
<span style="font-weight:normal;">Considering current prices hovering near&$4,350 per ounce,& <span style="font-weight:normal;">this equates roughly to a market value between&$1,500 and&$1,500.<span style="font-weight:normal;"> In other words,