Following Donald Trump’s involvement in Israel’s conflict with Iran at 1:15 AM New York time on February 28, the price of bitcoin ($BTC) surged by 8%, while gold experienced a decline of 18%.
At the beginning of hostilities, $BTC was valued at $65,492 and gold was priced at $5,279 per ounce. However, by Monday evening, $BTC had soared to $70,700 while gold plummeted to $4,300.
This shift indicates that $BTC can now purchase 32% more gold compared to its value on the morning Operation Epic Fury commenced.
The world’s most sought-after precious metal saw a staggering drop of 12% within just one week—its worst performance over seven days since 1983. Investors who turned to gold as a safeguard against war witnessed their investment lose a fifth of its worth in merely four weeks.
Bitcoin (orange) versus gold (blue). February 28-March 23, 2026. Source: TradingView
A Wake-Up Call for Safe Haven Investors
The initial rise in gold prices following the onset of conflict proved misleading. After briefly climbing due to the closure of oil tanker routes through the Strait of Hormuz, it quickly reversed course.
The increase in US Treasury yields coupled with a stronger dollar are two factors that generally suppress gold prices regardless of military presence in regions like the Persian Gulf.
The SPDR Gold Shares ETF suffered significant losses during the first week of warfare; it recorded outflows totaling $4.2 billion—the highest weekly withdrawal figure ever seen for this fund.
In just seven days, investors withdrew around 25 tonnes from this leading ETF that backs physical gold holdings worldwide.
Conversely, bitcoin weathered similar turbulence yet managed to retain its gains and even surpassed performance metrics for the S&P 500 Index which has declined over three percent since hostilities began.
Read more: How bombing Iran shifted oil and bitcoin prices
Ray Dalio—founder of Bridgewater Associates—stated during an episode on March 3 that central banks would never have an interest in acquiring $BTC, asserting “There is only one gold.”
Soon after Dalio made his prediction about market trends regarding these assets; however; we observed that while he claimed no interest would be shown towards $BTC, it actually rallied significantly as opposed to a greater than fifteen percent decrease seen with traditional safe-haven assets like Gold!
Evidently despite Bitcoin’s impressive performance post-bombing authorization against Iran—it hasn’t consistently outperformed Gold when considering longer-term metrics either! Year-to-date figures indicate stability for Gold contrasted sharply against Bitcoin’s twenty percent downturn! Over twelve months’ duration too—we see increases amounting up-to forty-four percent alongside seventeen percentage declines noted respectively!