- The price of gold broke $5,000 per ounce for the first time on Monday.
- Investors seeking a safe haven amid economic turbulence is the primary price driver.
- Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, are currently seeing price decreases.
Amid ongoing global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, gold reached an all-time high on Monday, surpassing the $5,000 per ounce price benchmark for the first time.
Persistent inflation, the looming possibility of another federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s threats targeting Greenland and on-again, off-again trade tariff proclamations have combined to spook investors into seeking safe harbors, a dynamic that’s pushed the price of gold and other precious metals into record territory.
“Markets price stability, and current policy direction introduces a level of unpredictability that pushes capital toward hard assets,” Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, an investment advisory firm, said in an email to CBS News. “Gold benefits when political signals create uncertainty about growth, inflation and international cooperation.”
Gold futures opened above $5,000 per troy ounce for the first time ever on Monday morning and were up 0.7% from Friday. Gold futures were trading at just over $5,086 per ounce as of midday Monday. Gold prices are up 8.8% over the past week, 11.1% from a month ago and 81.7% higher than this time last year.
Another factor pushing investors into gold is the weakening dollar, according to market analysts.
“The greenback has taken another hit as concerns continue to swirl (around) the impact of tariffs, high government spending and inflation on the U.S. economy, prompting investors to recalibrate their exposure to the U.S.,” Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, told CBS.
Goldman Sachs sees a broadening demand base for gold and the investment bank recently lifted its December 2026 gold price forecast to $5,400 an ounce, up from $4,900 previously, per a report from CNBC. Goldman analysts argue that hedges against global macro and policy risks have become “sticky,” effectively lifting the starting point for gold prices this year.
Gold’s win is crypto’s loss
While investors see gold as a safe place to stash capital to weather the current storms of economic uncertainty, they appear to have the opposite opinion when it comes to cryptocurrency investment.
Digital currencies have been trending downward of late with bitcoin trading at around $87,000 per token at midday Monday, down over 5% over the last week according to tracking by CoinGecko.
A report published over the weekend by CoinDesk noted that crypto advocates’ long-running goal of becoming a hedge against inflationary pressure has yet to be achieved.
“Bitcoin has failed so far to act as an inflation hedge or safe-haven asset, lagging badly behind gold, which has surged amid high inflation, wars, and interest rate uncertainty,” the Saturday report reads.
But some industry watchers say cryptocurrencies are making headway against precious metals when it comes to earning safe haven status among the investment community.
“Gold’s current surge is a temporary political distraction,” Jessy Gilger, senior advisor at Gannett Wealth Advisors, a bitcoin-native wealth management firm, told CoinDesk. “In times of fear, institutions tend to retreat to what they know because they often lack the foresight to embrace a genuine phase shift in technology. We are currently seeing a historical standard deviation move in the (gold/bitcoin) power law ratio, but hard assets are a long game.”