Gold, bitcoin rising: Do they belong in your portfolio?

Gold futures (GC=F) and bitcoin (BTC-USD) have been on the rise within the past six months, garnering a lot of attention from Wall Street as uncertainty and volatility have increased in markets. While these assets might seem like a great addition to anyone’s portfolio, is now the time to buy in or is there more than meets the eye?

Yahoo Finance Reporter Jared Blikre joins Wealth! to break down some of the pros and cons to keep in mind when adding gold and bitcoin to investors’ portfolios.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

Editor’s note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Watching gold prices sitting above $2,300 as investors await this week’s inflation print. And of course, digital gold also climbing higher, Bitcoin now sitting above $71,000, but this may not mean they belong in your portfolio. Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre has the breakdown. Hey, Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: Hey, Rachelle. And let’s just take a second to look at the performance this year. I’m doing this through ETFs as proxies, but gold up almost 13%, Bitcoin up over 50%. And by the way, this compares to the benchmark, that would be the S&P 500 in stocks, that’s up about 10%.

But we want to talk about some of the risks and some of the rewards in both Bitcoin and gold, and in crypto more generally. So the first risk that we’re looking at in crypto is volatility, and we know that crypto is no stranger to volatility. It works to the upside as well as to the downside. If you’re not comfortable in your position, you can get shaken out pretty easily, and Bitcoin has seen a number of 75% to 90% corrections in its short 15 or 14-year history.

So another risk to keep in mind is security. Crypto can be difficult to secure. If you’re able to store it yourself in cold storage, that can be a plus, but you can also lose those keys. So if you store it in a centralized exchange, like Coinbase, that can be a bit more secure. Though, ultimately, you don’t have as much control if you store it yourself.

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Now, we’re also taking a look at regulatory risk, and we’ve seen that ease recently. When Gary Gensler headed up the SEC four years ago, there were large expectations that he was going to be friendly with crypto, it didn’t really happen. But we finally got those spot Bitcoin ETFs, and finally, we see those Ethereum, spot Ethereum ETFs, on the horizon here.

Now, crypto rewards are decentralization. This is a huge plus that somebody who might reside in a country where they don’t have the ability to hedge their currency risk, they can buy Bitcoin, maybe. Sometimes, you might have to do it through a specialized dealer or through a VPN account, but it is possible and it gives options. But I should also say that’s the same ability that it gives criminals to use it for nefarious purposes.

Now liquidity is another one. Bitcoin never sleeps, it trades 24/7. So at 2:00 AM on a Saturday, you can buy and trade Dogecoin, but you can’t necessarily do that with stocks, so that is a plus right there. Then high return potential. I was talking about volatility before, works to the upside, as well as the downside, this is to the upside.

Let’s talk about gold now. I talked about market fluctuations with respect to– and that’s volatility with respect to crypto, works with gold, as well. Although we see gold volatility increasing with price, that’s a little bit different than– it’s actually the opposite than stocks.

Storage and insurance, you’ve got to store this stuff. And you’ve got to pay somebody to protect it, whether you’re a sovereign nation or you’re an individual investor. So storage and insurance are definitely risks to consider.

Limited use, gold is one of the universe’s most finest conductors, but we don’t use it a lot, mainly because of its price, in electrical equipment, so that is one thing to consider outside of its safe haven. And this is one of gold’s rewards, it is a safe haven. Investors turn to it in times of trouble and in times of inflation. It’s a physical asset, so you can hold on to it, that’s in contrast to cryptocurrency.

Finally, diversification, lots of portfolio studies over the years have showed that a portfolio with stocks, bonds, and gold or some form of commodities, even crypto, can be more diversified and provide better long-term risk adjusted returns. Guys.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Always important to know that risk. Appreciate you, Jared, so much.