Buying Gold and Silver With Bitcoin: The Definitive Guide
Bitcoin recently hit a new all time high. For seasoned investors, this means one thing: it might be time to get out. Buying gold and silver with Bitcoin is one common method investors use to diversify their portfolios by combining low-risk bullion with the high yield potential of cryptocurrency.
Trading crypto for gold, silver, and platinum isn’t difficult. Many online precious metal dealers allow customers to buy gold and silver with Bitcoin. Investors who are looking to get out of Bitcoin before prices crash again should consider putting their cash into gold and silver, two of the world’s most prolific safe haven assets.
On this page, investors will learn everything they need to know about buying gold and silver with Bitcoin. To buy precious metals with cryptocurrency, investors just need to find the right exchange, checkout using the “crypto” option, and plan for receipt and storage of their gold and silver products.
Buying Precious Metals With Bitcoin
To traditionalists, precious metals represent the complete opposite of cryptocurrency. Financial analysts have bemoaned Bitcoin’s lack of intrinsic value for years. This isn’t entirely fair, and Bitcoin and gold have a lot more in common than most old-school precious metal stackers might think.
Both Bitcoin and gold are non-correlated assets. A non-correlated asset isn’t driven by the same traditional economic signals that influence most other investments. Traditional assets like stocks and bonds become more valuable during economic booms – and cheaper when the economy starts to falter.
This is where cryptocurrencies and precious metals shine. These two unique asset classes tend to perform well during periods of economic stagnation. When things are bad in the traditional economy, investors who put their money into cryptocurrency and bullion often flourish.
If both of these assets serve similar roles in investment portfolios, why would someone want to trade their Bitcoin for gold?
Cryptocurrency Versus Gold and Silver
Gold and silver provide an excellent counterbalance to the volatility of cryptocurrencies. Every crypto investor knows how inconsistent the market can be. Bitcoin can crash by 50% or more in a single month – and it has!
Precious metals are far less volatile. Gold and silver tend to appreciate in value over time, especially during periods of general economic downturn. When these assets crash, though, the fall is much less violent. In the investment world, assets that don’t usually experience abrupt, massive shifts in value are called “low risk investments.”
There’s a reason why buying gold with crypto becomes more popular when Bitcoin hits a new high. Investors understand that cashing out a high risk investment before it loses value is generally a wise financial move. For investors looking to divest from Bitcoin while the cryptocurrency is at its height, gold and silver seem very appealing.
Bitcoin Hits All Time High – Is It Time to Get Out?
In early 2024, Bitcoin once again shocked the investment world by smashing its previous all time high. As of March 2024, a single Bitcoin was trading at more than $70,000. Investors who are used to the volatile ups and downs of crypto know that a hard crash is never out of the question.
Many investors are searching for a way to get out of the crypto market before prices fall once again. Gold and silver are classic, physical assets known for their consistency, beauty, and intrinsic value.
Trading Digital Gold for the Real Thing
Bitcoin’s reputation as digital gold has become an intense debate among investors and experts alike. The cryptocurrency is technically finite, and the computational power required to mine a single Bitcoin make it a relatively scarce asset.
However, most traditional financial advisors agree: there’s nothing quite like genuine gold in the investing world. Holding a variety of different assets is a core part of smart investing. Cryptocurrency investors who expand their portfolios using a combination of Bitcoin and gold/silver follow in the long-held financial wisdom that diversification is an essential strategy.
How to Buy Gold and Silver With Bitcoin
Buying gold and silver with Bitcoin is extremely easy. Investors who want to pivot out of the Bitcoin market while prices are high can convert their Bitcoin into gold, silver, and other precious metals using a few simple steps.
Step by Step Guide to Buying Bullion With Crypto
To buy gold and silver with Bitcoin, investors need to find a dealer that accepts cryptocurrency, choose their products, and use a crypto payment platform to finalize the purchase.
Below is a step by step guide on buying gold and silver with Bitcoin.
1. Find a Gold Dealer Who Accepts Crypto
Not all precious metal dealers accept cryptocurrency for payment. Investors who want to convert Bitcoin to gold and silver should search for online retailers that accept these payment methods.
When in doubt, investors can take a look at the “payment methods” page on their favorite bullion dealer’s website. Dealers often offer discounts, depending on which payment option customers choose. Hero Bullion currently offers a 2% discount for cryptocurrency purchases, which can help stackers save even more on their gold and silver.
Be sure to check out the processing times for each dealer’s “crypto for gold” program. Most of the time, payment processing for cryptocurrency doesn’t take longer than for most other online payment methods.
2. Choose the Right Metals
After investors find a dealer who accepts cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for gold and silver, the next step in the process is to choose some precious metals. Deciding between silver coins and rounds can be tough. Be sure to check out some of the Bullion Academy’s guides to find the right bullion products for your growing portfolio.
Investors opting to trade their digital gold for the real thing should also consider the divisibility and liquidity of their new precious metal products. As a general rule of thumb, investors who plan to sell part of their stack should consider small, fractional coins rather than massive bullion products.
Investors who choose to go large with their next gold investment could save quite a bit of money, though. Ultimately, each precious metal collector should use their own objectives and investment preferences to decide which metal is best for them.
3. Checkout Using BitPay
Different dealers can use several payment platforms to process purchases made with Bitcoin. Gold dealers who accept Bitcoin often go with BitPay, a secure online payment processor for nearly a dozen cryptocurrencies.
Hero Bullion allows investors to buy gold with Bitcoin. To checkout with Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, customers just need to add items to their carts and then select “crypto via BitPay at checkout!
Buying Gold and Silver With Bitcoin: Pros and Cons
Trading Bitcoin for gold and silver is a common strategy for crypto investors who want to pivot into a safer, more consistent money market. That being said, there are both pros and cons to buying gold and silver with Bitcoin.
Below, readers will find a comprehensive breakdown of the advantages – and disadvantages – of using cryptocurrency to buy gold and silver bullion.
Advantages of Buying Gold and Silver With Bitcoin
Buying gold and silver with Bitcoin can help stackers invest in a tangible asset, avoid the volatility of crypto markets, and shield their assets from inflation. These three main benefits to investing in gold using cryptocurrency continue to persuade investors to trade their digital gold for the real thing.
Investing in a Tangible Asset
Gold is a physical, tangible asset. Investors who put their money into digital assets like Bitcoin certainly see profits, but they can never physically hold the investments they put all of their money into.
Even seasoned cryptocurrency enthusiasts love the idea of physically holding their investment. After all, the thrill of seeing a portfolio of precious metals grow is one reason why silver stacking is so popular. Investors who buy gold with Bitcoin no longer need to worry about their favorite exchange collapsing or their wallets being hacked.
Above all else, gold’s tangibility and independence from regulatory authorities is one major reason for its stellar reputation among investors. Unlike Bitcoin investors, gold stackers are wholly and totally in control of the safety and security of their investments.
Avoiding Volatile Crypto Markets
The volatility of cryptocurrency markets is an open secret among seasoned investors. Even the International Monetary Fund has called cryptocurrency the “Wild West” of investing. Extreme price swings (in both directions) mean that Bitcoin has created millionaires, but also that the cryptocurrency has ruined many portfolios.
Investors who want to get out of the volatile markets before the pendulum swings the other way should consider buying gold and silver with Bitcoin. While precious metals will never offer the incredible ROI of a fresh cryptocurrency, these assets have a consistent, established history of long-term price appreciation.
It’s also worth noting that investors don’t have to spend all of their cash buying gold and silver with Bitcoin. Combining the high risk of cryptocurrency with the consistent price fluctuations of gold and silver could help investors better diversify their portfolios.
Shielding Assets From Inflation
Both gold and Bitcoin can function as safe havens from inflation and other economic ills. However, cryptocurrency is still very new. Economists have had hundreds of years to study how gold and silver react to inflation, unemployment, and other traditional economic stimuli. Bullion’s role as a non-correlated asset is backed by centuries of meticulous research by economists across the world.
Bitcoin seems to be similar to gold when it comes to hedging against inflation and recession. Whether recent trends suggest that Bitcoin will continue to correlate with gold’s price movements is anybody’s guess.
Once again, it is clear that buying gold and silver with Bitcoin can help investors diversify their portfolios with one of the most consistent, time-tested traditions in investing.
Downsides of Buying Gold and Silver With Bitcoin
Buying gold and silver with Bitcoin isn’t the right move for every investor. Trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for precious metals is a decision that comes with two main downsides. Investors who buy gold and silver using Bitcoin need to consider storage/insurance while also weighing the downsides of pivoting out of a high risk investment position.
Considering Storage and Insurance
Investors should consider storage and insurance before trading Bitcoin for gold. Bitcoin is easy to purchase and costs nothing to store. Investors don’t need to buy expensive insurance to make sure their cryptocurrencies are protected.
The same cannot be said for gold and silver. Stackers who plan on buying gold and silver with Bitcoin should be prepared to spend a bit of money insuring and storing their metals. Investors who plan to buy gold, platinum, or palladium should be especially careful about how they store and insure their new investments.
While some small-scale silver stackers can get away with storing their bullion in a locked drawer, experts recommend buying a home safe to safekeep more expensive metals like gold and platinum. Alternatively, it’s often possible to store gold and other precious metals at bullion dealer depositories – for a fee.
Insurance is also a major concern for investors making the switch from Bitcoin to gold or silver. For large gold stacks, purchasing additional homeowners insurance is nearly a necessity. The last thing any investor wants is to lose their portfolio because of a home invasion or natural disaster.
Trading High Yield for Low Risk
Another con to buying gold and silver with Bitcoin has to do with the risk profile of an investor’s portfolio. Investors who trade their cryptocurrency for precious metals are functionally switching between a high risk/yield asset and a low risk/yield one.
In other words, gold is safer than Bitcoin but offers less potential for large profits. Gold’s value tends to go up slowly over time, making it ideal for investors with a low risk tolerance. Bitcoin is quite the opposite; its price swings make it a high risk investment that could generate massive profits quickly.
Investors looking to buy gold and silver with Bitcoin should consider their own risk tolerance and exposure before making the switch. Young investors who have a high risk tolerance might overlook Bitcoin’s volatility in exchange for some potentially massive gains. Investors who are more risk averse should go with precious metals, as they offer minimal upside but virtually no big risks.
Final Thoughts: How to Buy Gold and Silver With Bitcoin
With Bitcoin at a new all-time high, many investors are looking for a way to put their money into less volatile markets. Buying gold and silver with Bitcoin is one way for consumers to turn their crypto profits into a consistent, tangible collection of bullion coins, bars, and rounds.
Hero Bullion now accepts cryptocurrency payments using BitPay. Check out some of our products and be sure to visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information on buying gold and silver with Bitcoin.
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About The Author
Michael Roets
Michael Roets is a writer and journalist for Hero Bullion. His work explores precious metals news, guides, and commentary.