When Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, 2025, investors had three assets dominate the conversation: Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency Trump had publicly embraced; gold, the centuries-old safe haven; and the TRUMP memecoin, a token launched just three days earlier that was already being called the trade of the inauguration.

Here is what a $1,000 investment in each would be worth as of August 4, 2026.

Ticker references at the time of reporting: BTC-USD +0.20%, GENIUS-USD +1.92%, TRUMP35336-USD -2.67%.

Bitcoin: Down 40%

Bitcoin opened on inauguration day at approximately $102,000. A $1,000 investment would have purchased roughly 0.0098 BTC. With Bitcoin currently trading near $62,000, that holding is valued at approximately $607 — a decline of 40%.

The drop is notable given the political backdrop. Trump entered office as the most openly crypto-friendly president in U.S. history. He signed the GENIUS Act — landmark legislation establishing the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins — issued an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and declared the United States the "crypto capital of the world." Bitcoin nonetheless shed 40% of its value during his tenure.

The context surrounding the loss adds to its significance. In March 2025, Trump's administration established the first-ever Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, halting all government Bitcoin sales and signaling long-term institutional commitment at the sovereign level. That move placed the U.S. among a small but growing group of nations exploring Bitcoin as a strategic holding, following El Salvador's adoption of BTC as legal tender in 2021. The policy environment was arguably the most favorable in Bitcoin's history, yet the price still fell from where it stood on the day those policies became official.

The takeaway is not that Bitcoin is inherently flawed, but rather that even the strongest policy tailwinds cannot fully offset a global liquidity squeeze, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and the large-scale unwinding of overleveraged positions — dynamics that have driven multiple prior Bitcoin drawdowns exceeding 50% even in the absence of hostile regulation.

Gold: Up 22%

Gold was trading at approximately $2,697 per ounce on January 20, 2025. A $1,000 investment would have purchased 0.371 ounces. At today's gold price of approximately $3,300 per ounce, that position is worth approximately $1,224 — a gain of 22%.

The same presidency expected to supercharge the crypto sector turned out to benefit gold significantly. Tariff wars, U.S.-Iran military strikes, persistent inflation, and a Federal Reserve maintaining a hawkish stance repeatedly drove capital into the precious metal during periods of heightened uncertainty.

Gold reached an all-time high above $5,500 per ounce earlier in 2026, extending a multi-year rally that coincided with record central bank gold purchases — particularly from the People's Bank of China, the Reserve Bank of India, other emerging-market central banks diversifying reserves away from dollar-denominated assets.

Gold's performance is particularly notable because it required no crypto-specific catalyst. It has no halving cycle, no ETF inflows to track, and no whale wallets to monitor. Its value rises when confidence in financial institutions erodes and when inflation remains elevated beyond central bank projections — precisely the macroeconomic conditions that Trump's own policies helped generate.

TRUMP Memecoin: Down 97%

The TRUMP memecoin was trading at approximately $45.47 on January 20, 2025, already well below its all-time high of $74.27 reached two days earlier. A $1,000 investment at inauguration-day prices would have bought roughly 22 coins. At the current price of $1.47, those coins are worth approximately $32 — a loss of 97%.

The decline follows a well-documented pattern across the memecoin category, where tokens tied to cultural or political moments have historically experienced rapid attention spikes followed by prolonged selloffs as speculative volume migrates to newer entrants.

While Trump disclosed over $1.4 billion in crypto income in his 2025 financial filings — largely from TRUMP coin royalties — investors who purchased the token on inauguration day are holding one of the worst-performing positions of the entire cycle.

Those who bought at $45 on inauguration day were making a political statement rather than a financial decision, and the market treated the two very differently.

The Scorecard

Three assets. The same $1,000. The same start date.

• Gold: $1,224
• Bitcoin: $607
• TRUMP Coin: $32

The most crypto-friendly administration in American history produced a single winner among the three — and it was the asset that has existed for thousands of years, with no ticker symbol.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on August 4, 2026, in its MARKETS section. Source: Yahoo Finance.