The Value of $1,000 Invested in Gold at the Beginning of 2025
Summary:
⚈ Gold rose 28.65% in 2025, turning $1,000 into $1,286.50
⚈ It outperformed stocks and crypto amid market-wide uncertainty and instability
⚈ Volatile price swings make gold resemble crypto in recent trading behavior
Thanks to the commodity’s rise in 2025, there would have been few more lucrative trades than investing $1,000 in gold at the very start of the year. In just over four months, the precious metal has rallied 28.65% from the New Year price of $2,658 to its May 6 press time price of $3,376.
Such a setup means that traders who elected to buy $1,000 worth of the yellow metal at the start of 2025 would have made $286.50 in profit, making their investment worth a total of $1,286.50. Though gold has been performing well for more than a year and is 46.69% in the green in the 12-month chart and 97.96% up in the five-year chart, this year is somewhat peculiar because it significantly outperformed most other popular assets.
For example, the benchmark S&P 500 index is down 3.72% in the year-to-date (YTD) chart, while the superstar stock of 2024, the semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), plunged 17.71% within the same time frame.
The situation is much the same with cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin (BTC) being just 1.34% above its January 1 price at press time on May 6.
Gold’s performance in 2025 has also been specific due to the speed of the rise and the relatively violent swings. It took the commodity more than a decade to move from $1,000 to $2,000 and more than two years to move from $2,000 to $3,000, and, based on its recent price dynamics, it could well hit $4,000 before the summer is over according to some analysts.
The magnitude of the moves and the overall volatility – the yellow metal stood at almost exactly $3,000 30 days ago, climbed to $3,500 in late April, plunged to $3,200 on May 1, and surged back to $3,376 by press time – can be attributed to the overall state of the economy. Since 2025 started, instability has been the order of the day as President Donald Trump inaugurated an era of trade-war-driven uncertainty for regular investors seeking both safety and profits in the turmoil, and for nation-states reconsidering their dollar-denominated reserves and investments in the U.S. national debt.