OMG I can't believe I bet the entire ranch on long duration treasuries!
Just kidding, I put everything I had into digital currency. I'm fricken rich!
Visualizing Major Asset Class Returns in 2024
January 8, 2025
By Dorothy Neufeld, Visual Capitalist
Bitcoin and Gold Outperform in 2024
With 120.8% returns, bitcoin exceeded the returns of gold and U.S. large caps by more than fourfold in 2024, fueled by broader investor adoption and Trump’s re-election.
Retail and institutional investors alike poured billions into spot Bitcoin ETFs following U.S. regulatory approval in early 2024. In just 11 months, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF raked in $50 billion in inflows, the fastest rate on record.
Since 2015, bitcoin has consistently outperformed major asset classes, with the exception of 2022 and 2018.
Asset 2024 Annual Return
Bitcoin 120.8%
Gold 27.2%
U.S Large Caps 23.3%
U.S. Small Caps 10.1%
U.S. Dollar Index 7.1%
Emerging Market Equities 4.0%
Commodities 2.6%
U.S. Real Estate 1.1%
Crude Oil 0.7%
International Developed Market Equities 0.4%
Short Duration Treasurys -0.1%
U.S. Corporate Bonds -2.6%
Long Duration Treasurys -11.7%
Gold, with 27.2% returns, had its best year since 2010 driven by central bank purchases, interest rate cuts, and geopolitical instability.
In particular, central banks across China, Türkiye, and India have been increasingly buying gold over the past two years as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. This reflects a wider trend among global central banks, where gold makes up 11% of reserves, nearly doubling from 2008.
When it came to U.S. equities, megacap companies investing in AI-related technologies continued to push the S&P 500 to multiple record highs. Overall, large caps outperformed small caps by 13.2% last year in a highly concentrated market.
For emerging market stocks, returns were a modest 4%. Typically, a strengthening U.S. dollar leads emerging market equities to underperform as foreign currencies face greater pressure. Last year, developing-country stocks saw the greatest underperformance against U.S. equities in more than three decades.
As the worst-performing major asset class, long duration Treasurys sank 11.7%. Along with this, U.S. corporate bonds fell 2.6% while short-term Treasurys declined marginally.
Looking ahead, bond investors are wary of an inflation resurgence and a widening deficit under a Trump administration in light of proposed tax cuts and the impact of sweeping tariffs on the government budget.
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