New York’s famous Diamond District was overflowing last week. However, the subject of many of the hearts of the city’s gem districts was gold, not diamonds.
Covid, Ukraine and now, the trade war between Donald Trump is all sparking new interest in gold.
At West 47th Street, GT survey gold trader Becky Algozhoeva showed coins and ingots engraved on its customers with the Roman goddess Fortuna, also known as “Lady Fortuna.”
“Normal people think gold is the key. They don’t believe in banks anymore because economics is unstable and they don’t want to invest in institutions. They want to have it under the pillow. And gold won’t get any worse. It’s not milk, right?”
Gold prices have risen by more than 20% since Trump’s election in November and 95% over the past five years. Gold prices fell from a one-ounce set record last month at $3,500. This is part of the prediction that Trump will take down more trade tensions. However, Gold Bugs love uncertainty and it seems likely that it will come.
Algozhoeva said all mentions of gold by the media, Instagram and Tiktok government officials contributed to the return of the “only currency universally recognized.”
Over the first few months of the year, US demand had become so strong that traders began sending 400 ounces of gold bars from London’s vault to Switzerland. There they were converted into kilobars and sent to the US in a commercial airliner hold.
“It was unprecedented,” says Philip Newman, managing director of Precious Metals Consultancy Metals Focus. “We saw some rise during Covid, but this was more structural and long-term.”
As a result, US gold stocks have doubled, with over 20m, or about 600 tons of shipment in New York City safes. In February, JPMorgan alone said it plans to deliver $4 billion in the US, according to a filing by the US Comex Exchange.
After the disappointing US economic growth numbers last month, some economists said an unusually large amount of non-monetary gold (battery, gold coins, unquarried gold, semi-manufactured gold, gold scraps) accounted for some jumps in imports.
From the beginning of April, the markets quieted when it became clear that the US would not be tariffs on gold and silver. But I don’t feel like that is the case. “There is uncertainty about what Trump will do tomorrow, and that uncertainty is ongoing,” Newman says.
The 2024 Gold Rush could be measured deeper than Trump’s US-led trade war and its attempt to offset concerns about the global economy and rising debt levels. The central bank has been purchasing gold to diversify twice as much gold as 1,000 tonnes a year in the past decade since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In the final quarter of 2024 when Trump won the US election, the World Gold Council (WGC) estimates that central bank purchases accelerated to 54% year-on-year to 333 tons.
Bank of America’s merchandise strategist Michael Widmer told Reuters that the central bank should increase its reserves by 11,000 tonnes. “Currently, emerging market central banks hold about 10% of their assets in gold,” he said. “They should really hold 30% of their assets in gold.”
At the same time, it’s not just central banks and commercial banks that are buying more money. Consumers purchased 13% less gold jewelry, but in 2024 it increased its bar and coin purchases from 3% to 325 tonnes. whole. According to WSG, the first quarter of 2025 was the second-strongest record of influx of Global Gold Exchange Trading Funds (ETFs) as investors poured $21 billion into gold-owned investment vehicles during the first three months of the year.
Earlier this month, Wells Fargo estimated retailer Costco was making a month between $100 million and $20 million by selling gold sticks. The company began selling a one-ounce bar last year, made for around $2,000 at a nearly pure 24 carat gold price. In October, Costco’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Garanty told investors: “They usually went within a few hours.”
Despite the recent decline in gold prices, many people don’t end their gold fever anytime soon. Deutsche Bank expects Bullion to reach $3,700 per ounce by next year, and billionaire investor John Paulson told Reuters that central bank gold purchases and global trade tensions are likely to boost bullion prices of nearly $5,000 by 2028.
Paulson’s Fund’s Paulson & Co reportedly won $3.7 billion in bets in 2007, which ended with the collapse of the subprime mortgage boom. Paulson & Co is already the largest shareholder of Perpetua Goldmine in Idaho and bought $800 million, or 40%, of Barrick’s Novagold’s Donlin Gold project earlier this month.
“I think gold will increase our global position as central banks and people are trying to put money into a more stable source,” Paulson told Reuters. He said the Western confiscation of Russia’s foreign reserve holdings is because Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is a catalyst for the world’s central banks, particularly China, to load into gold.
“When the war began, (Russia) maintained physical gold, which was safe, but all their cash – the paper reserves – was confiscated,” Paulson said. “So the other central banks woke up and said, “What if there was a conflict with the US? Will the US maintain our Treasury Department and all of our savings go away?”
However, as an asset where gold metal’s long historical records are desirable, gold fever has surpassed Costco’s survivalists, central banks and money managers.
“That’s the only thing you can trust, right?” He started off with Konstantin “Gino” Popolis, manager of Green Diamond Buyers. “That’s the only thing you can prove that you have assets. There’s nothing else. There’s no more digital, AI, bubbles, or shortages. With money, you have evidence.”