Analysts predict a good year for gold in 2025 after it's poised for the best annual performance in over a decade in 2024. However, Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR), has called for a dramatic shift in U.S. economic strategy, urging the country to abandon gold as a reserve asset in favor of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).

What Happened: The World Gold Council in its 2025 outlook has outlined three scenarios for the precious metal in the upcoming year. According to them, gold will "remain rangebound" if existing market expectations are correct.

Explaining its rationale for the rangebound assertion, the council notes that "a combination of higher rates and lower economic growth could negatively affect investors and consumers."

On the flip side, "significantly lower interest rates or a deterioration in geopolitics or market conditions will improve gold's performance."

JPMorgan has said that it expects gold prices to "find continued support from central banks, particularly in emerging markets. Critically, gold—the original safe-haven asset—can serve as an attractive hedge against both geopolitical risk and uncertainty around sovereign debt and deficits."

Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, forecasts gold prices will reach $2,700 by early next year, "buoyed by interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and gold purchases by emerging market central banks. The metal could get an additional boost if the U.S. imposes new financial sanctions or if concerns mount about the U.S. debt burden."

Bitcoin Bulls Disagree

Despite a largely positive outlook for gold in 2025, few Bitcoin bulls think differently. Speaking on an episode of the Galaxy Brains podcast, Saylor labeled gold as a "shiny dead rock."

"If you want to elevate the U.S.'s economic leadership in the world, there are two very simple strategies," Saylor said. "Dump the gold and buy Bitcoin."

He suggested that replacing gold with Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset would allow the U.S. to demonetize gold—an asset heavily held by rival nations—and capitalize on Bitcoin's growth potential.

Price Action: Gold spot prices have risen by 28.63% year-to-date, according to Benzinga Pro data. This is gold's best performance since 2007 when gold surged by over 31%.

Here's how a few other gold ETFs have performed this year.

In comparison, Bitcoin ETFs have surged over four times during the same period.

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