Recent tariff announcements by President Donald Trump have rattled global markets by imposing new duties on key imports from China, Mexico and Canada. Continued rhetoric from the president regarding the potential for further tariffs on trading partners in the EU has continued to stoke economic uncertainty, pushing many investors toward gold as a safe-haven asset.
“Trump’s recent announcement regarding tariffs on goods from China, global tariffs on aluminium and steel, and threats of 25% tariffs on goods from the EU has rattled markets, increasing economic uncertainty. Gold as the ultimate safe-haven asset has gained tremendously from this, as investors seek shelter from the uncertainty.” shares Pete Walden, managing director of BullionByPost.
Record buying of gold via online marketplaces
Gold’s latest surge to new record prices is seeing sentiment, demand and new accounts openings jump to multi-year highs on BullionVault, taking the value of securely-stored gold owned by investors using the precious metals marketplace above $4.0 billion for the first time (£3.2bn, €3.8bn, ¥606bn).
With the number of new investors rising last month to the highest count since May 2021, the total number of people starting or adding to their gold holdings on BullionVault rose 33.6% from January’s figure, while the number of people selling gold across the month fell 17.0% despite gold’s new record prices offering fresh profits.
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Together that raised the Gold Investor Index by 3.6 points – the strongest rise in 10 months – to 56.3, its highest reading since October 2022.
Western investors are piling into gold bullion
The Gold Investor Index tracks the balance of gold buyers versus sellers each month, starting in 2009. It set a decade peak of 65.9 in March 2020 when the Covid pandemic went global, and it fell to a record low of 47.5 last March as gold’s rising price spurred heavy profit-taking by existing owners.
Any reading above 50.0 would signal that the number of buyers perfectly matched the number of sellers across the month.
Commenting on the data, Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVault, said:
“With Trump 2.0 delivering exactly the chaos he promised in the US election, Western investors are joining emerging-market central banks in buying gold as an all-weather hedge. Traders in all markets are now watching Truthsocial more closely than monetary policy. Volatility is helping. Gold prices swung around 6% in all major currencies last month, offering longer-term holders the chance to book a profit before buying the dip alongside new investors.”
Gold price hitting new all-time highs
Having set a record 40 new all-time highs in 2024, the price of gold in UK pounds hit SIX new record highs in February after setting NINE in January.
The upturn in European gold buyers since the eve of the US election in October continues, spreading to US investors, but from a lower base historically.
Worldwide, this jump in bullion demand remains far from a gold rush right now. While February brought the most first-time buyers to BullionVault in nearly four years, that number was less than half the peak of either the Covid crisis in August 2020 or the global financial crisis in September 2011, when gold’s then-record prices set what proved to be a longer-term top.
By weight in February, and net of customer profit-taking, BullionVault’s marketplace witnessed the strongest gold investor demand since June 2023 at 0.2 tonnes. More than reversing January’s net outflow, that demand saw the total quantity of BullionVault clients’ gold rise to a 3-month high above 44.1 tonnes. Up 0.4% from January’s 4.5-year low, client gold holdings increased 1.1% to the ninth new all-time record of the past 12 months, rising above $4.0 billion for the first time.
Gold ETFs
 | Core Physical Gold | Gold LON:WGLD / USD |    |
| Gold 1x Daily Short | Gold SBUL / USD |  |
| Gold 2x Daily Leveraged | Gold LBUL / USD | |
| Gold 3x Daily Leveraged | Gold 3GOL / USD | |
| Gold 3x Daily Short | Gold 3GOS / USD | |
| Physical Gold – GBP Daily Hedged | Gold GBSP / GBP | |
