Don't forget that gold and silver are also commodities in demand for industrial and decorative uses. They can also be more anonymous, like cash, for in-person exchange without the overhead of learning about cryptography and security keys. I've found a few other metrics for measuring inflation in the US, which show the dollar is far weaker than the official CPI data says, and people want something that doesn't always plummet like the dollar, and may be less volatile than an apparent bubble in stocks, bonds, and real estate.