In a report released this week, the WGC said Bitcoin had fallen 55% while gold rallied 9.4% in the fourth quarter of 2018.

"While cryptocurrencies may have a role to play in the financial markets, their behaviour in an environment of market uncertainty underscored that they are not a viable substitute for gold as a safe-haven," the WGC said.

It said gold was less volatile, had a more liquid market, traded in an established regulatory framework, had a well-understood role in an investment portfolio and had little overlap with cryptocurrencies on many sources of demand and supply.

The WGC acknowledged cryptocurrencies' performance had been remarkable until recently, referring to bitcoin's "parabolic rise" - a 13-fold increase in 2017 - which had overshadowed gold's 13% increase that year.

However it said cryptocurrencies' purpose as an investment seemed quite different from gold and said they were yet to be tested in multiple markets.

It did note there were some similarities between growth profiles, citing Bitcoin's future diminishing growth rate and ultimate finite quantity, along with gold's scarcity and marginal annual growth.

Its report comes as the gold price has risen above US$1,311 an ounce on the spot market, its highest level since mid-May last year amid uncertainties including Brexit, US-China trade relations and a lowered global economic outlook.