It’s the boom that keeps getting boomier. After a stellar 2025, gold continues to reach new highs, advancing by about 17 per cent over the past month alone, to break through the $5,000-per-ounce threshold.
This comes on the back of a record 2025, when the precious metal soared by 64 per cent on the back of geopolitical uncertainty, as investors sought out the safe haven asset.
Unsurprisingly then, investors are still pouring into the precious metal. Last year, the World Gold Council said gold ETFs saw record inflows of some $89 billion, while physical purchases also grew strongly.
In the UK, you can now buy gold in Costco; yes, you can pop a 500g gold bar (about £49,000) into your (online) trolley along with your 30 bars of Kinder Bueno, kilo of coffee and 24 cans of Fanta Pear.
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No wonder, then, that some are questioning whether the current boom might in fact be a bubble. Alan McIntosh, chief investment officer for Quilter Cheviot Europe, late last year described recent price hikes as “insane”.
“It is getting a little bit crazy,” he said. “It’s pretty phenomenal: we haven’t had moves like that for decades.”
What’s unusual for McIntosh is that the so-called safe-harbour asset is reaching new highs at the same time as the possible AI bubble.
“Both of these things seem to be contradicting each other and both seem to be going up at the same time,” says McIntosh.
What’s happening?
The recent stratospheric rise in the price of gold is not a new event; it reached record highs in 2024, but the rate of growth substantially picked up again last year, and looks set to continue into 2026.
“When bad things happen, people tend to move into gold,” says McIntosh. This is as true today as it has always been, perhaps, but what has been different this year is the new leadership in the US.
“There is a greater threat over the perception of the dollar as being the safest currency,” says McIntosh. “It used to be that the dollar was the safe haven but now people are distrustful of that.”
Central banks have also been buying heavily into gold, particularly in developing countries, spooked perhaps by Trump’s trade tariffs.
“Banks have been swapping paper money for something that’s real,” says McIntosh, adding that this can protect against the dollar weakening further.
But it’s unlikely to be all driven by fundamentals; the fear of missing out can also push people to buy gold. Some people may be realising that gold is up by so much, “so there must be something in it. That, often of itself, can prompt a lot of buying” says McIntosh.
Last year, an analyst at Pictet Asset Management likened current exuberance to “gold-plated Fomo”. “Gold has become so big ... that you cannot ignore it. There becomes a level when it becomes impossible not to own it,” Luca Paolini told the Financial Times.
Even our own Central Bank has doubled its holdings of gold in recent years to about 12 tonnes, and has seen the value of this soar. It was worth about €1.13 billion as of this August, up from €879 million a year earlier.
Frothy exuberance
But are we approaching bubble territory?
“It is a kind of exuberance, but the reasons people are buying are perfectly legitimate. It’s a hedge against bad stuff happening,” says McIntosh.
And it may not stop here. Some analysts at Bank of America are now forecasting a price of $6,000 an ounce later this year, while Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, said last October that investors should now hold 15 per cent of their portfolio in gold.
This is a view echoed by Morgan Stanley. The US bulge bracket bank suggested last year that part of the bond allocation of a typical portfolio should be replaced with gold. Farewell the 60/40 portfolio – hello 60 per cent equities, 20 per cent bonds, and 20 per cent gold.
This is partly due to bonds no longer being seen as the safe haven they used to be.
And the supply of physical gold has its limits. It’s said that the current supply of gold would fill only three Olympic-sized swimming pools. It doesn’t take much extra demand to squeeze the price higher.
[ Are we overegging the threat from US tariffs?Opens in new window ]
Gold: Three ways to invest
Gold coins: You can buy gold coins and bars with Goldcore, the Dublin-based member of the London Bullion Market Association. You can either have it delivered to you by a secure and insured courier or have Goldcore store it for you in its vault. A 1oz gold bar was selling for €4,319.22 on January 26th, while a 0.24oz British gold sovereign coin was selling for around €1,014.
Goldcore says Dublin buyers tend to keep their gold in storage, but Cork buyers prefer to take delivery. Factor in buying related/storage costs with this option.
You can buy a 1/4 troy ounce gold coin, commemorating Daniel O’Connell, for €995 from the Central Bank.
ETF/ETC: Another option is to put your money into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or exchange-traded commodity fund (ETC). Many of these are backed by physical gold and they are a relatively cheap, liquid way of getting into gold.
One example is the iShares Physical Gold ETC, which is up 12 per cent since the start of the year. It has a 0.12 per cent annual fee and you can buy such funds through your broker.
Revolut also offers customers the option of trading an “exposure” to gold, which is based on live market performance data. A spokesman says this exposure is backed up by real, physical gold. Gains are subject to capital gains tax. Standard customers will pay fees of 0.99 per cent/min fee of €1, whichever is higher, plus 1 per cent/0.5 per cent FX fair usage.
Shares in gold miners: Another option is to buy shares of gold mining companies, such as Zijin Mining Group or Newmont. This is a more indirect way of getting exposure to gold, and can be more volatile, given the difficult environments some of these companies operate in.
“It’s a very risky way of doing it,” says McIntosh.
Or what about the Johannesburg Stock Exchange? The JSE FTSE, which has a number of gold mining companies in the index, is up 30 per cent on the year.
