Gold surges past $5,400 as Bitcoin struggles to gain traction following Jerome Powell remarks.

Gold soared on Wednesday as investors rushed into the precious metal following comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The yellow metal jumped 6% to surpass $5,400 per ounce, marking another milestone in its ongoing bull run.

Silver and platinum posted even stronger percentage gains, but gold—whose market capitalization hovers around $40 trillion—remained the clear standout.

Much of gold’s surge came after Powell addressed its rapid ascent during a press conference, following the Fed’s widely expected decision to hold the benchmark federal funds rate at 3.50%–3.75%. Asked about the rally in gold and silver, Powell cautioned against reading it as a macroeconomic signal. “Don’t take too much message into [that] macroeconomically,” he said, adding that the Fed’s credibility remains intact.

Bitcoin stays muted

Bitcoin (BTC $82,740.49), meanwhile, remained on the sidelines. The cryptocurrency traded in a tight range throughout the day, slipping slightly after the Fed decision and hovering around $89,000, essentially flat over 24 hours. Other major cryptocurrencies mirrored this muted trend.

U.S. equities also showed little movement as investors awaited earnings reports from tech giants including Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla.

Questions for “digital gold”

The sharp divergence between gold and bitcoin raises fresh questions about BTC’s role as “digital gold.” Despite macro conditions that often support bitcoin—such as a weaker dollar and rising geopolitical risks—BTC has struggled, while gold has climbed more than 90% over the past year.

“We’re clearly in a market regime where crypto is underperforming some of the very assets it was designed to supplant,” said James Harris, CEO of crypto yield platform Tesseract Group. “Part of gold’s outperformance reflects a repricing of geopolitical and fiscal risk, but it also shows gold reclaiming relative market share from bitcoin.”