More Americans Own Bitcoin Than Gold - Or Do They?

According to data shown by Cointelegraph, more Americans own bitcoin than gold.

At first glance, that sounds plausible. Bitcoin is simply easier to hold. It’s more liquid, easier to transfer, and in many ways more practical. On top of that, gold itself has been tokenized for years now. If someone just wants exposure to gold as a store of value, they no longer need to deal with physical metal. On rabbit.io, for example, users often swap BTC or other crypto assets into PAXG or XAUT.

So the rise of crypto is doing two things at once: increasing the number of Bitcoin holders and, at the same time, reducing the number of people who choose to buy gold directly.

But there’s one question that keeps bothering me: what about all the gold Americans already owned before crypto even existed?

I find it hard to believe that it just disappeared from the equation. In most families - even relatively modest ones - there is at least some gold in the form of jewelry, often passed down through generations.

That’s why the Cointelegraph numbers feel questionable. It looks like they may be ignoring the most widespread form of gold ownership altogether. I struggle to find any other explanation for such a counterintuitive result.