gold mining uses a ton of energy, more than bitcoin mining. To the extent that people substitute gold for bitcoin in financial portfolios, this is positive since net energy waste is lower.
I don’t know how much gold is actually shifted around physically, but the trading volume in a year is several times the actual amount of gold that has been mined, so I suspect the proportion of that which involves physical movement is tiny.
total USD transaction volume according to above about $1.3bln
trading volume, according to https://coinmarketcap.com/ - 6.7 bln
most bitcoin volume is virtual, not generating actual transactions, by 5 to 1 margin. Not sure where you got your numbers
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-07/bitcoin-i...