Gold, it seems, is no longer just the preserve of central bankers, Indian households and doom-preppers. A rising cohort of Generation Z investors, Britons in their late teens and twenties, are piling into bullion at a record pace.
According to BullionVault, a West London-based fintech marketplace for precious metals, the number of UK Gen Z users joining its platform has more than doubled this year. They now represent over 15% of new accounts, compared with 13% across the past five years.
Their enthusiasm has coincided with spectacular price moves. In 2025 alone, gold in sterling terms has risen by more than 30% and silver by almost 36%. Both metals trade at record highs. For young savers, such performance makes gold look less like an archaic relic and more like a growth asset.
Why are Gen Z investors buying gold?
The generational logic is not hard to grasp. Gen Z has grown up in an era of rolling crises: the financial crash, the pandemic, inflation spikes and geopolitical shocks. Unlike their parents, who might have associated gold with the inflationary 1970s or Gordon Brown’s infamous sales of Britain’s reserves, this cohort sees bullion as a digital-native form of insurance. With apps such as BullionVault offering instant access to vaulted gold and silver via smartphone, buying bullion has become no more complicated than trading equities or crypto.
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There is, too, a psychological angle. Young investors were drawn into markets during the pandemic by the meme-stock frenzy and by Bitcoin’s spectacular rise. Both episodes ended with sharp reversals.
Gold and silver may feel like a more sober hedge, assets that are tangible, globally recognised and, crucially, unlinked to the solvency of any single government. As Adrian Ash, BullionVault’s research director, puts it: “Gen Z has grown up amid economic uncertainty, inflation and geopolitical tension. Now they’re looking for stability and a tangible store of value.”
But the rush into bullion carries contradictions. Precious metals are usually a hedge against monetary debasement or market stress, not a source of sustained growth. The rally of 2025 has been fuelled by expectations of falling interest rates, dollar weakness and strong central-bank demand. Such drivers are cyclical.
The notion that gold will forever compound wealth as equities might is a mirage. For an age group only beginning to build savings, excessive allocation to bullion risks missing out on more productive assets.
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Watch out for sharp corrections in the gold price
Moreover, buying at record highs exposes these new investors to the oldest pitfall of all: arriving just as the party cools. Even Ash acknowledges that the speed of this year’s price run “is certain to ease back”. The long-term bull case for metals may remain intact, but sharp corrections are part of the terrain.
Still, the trend speaks to a broader recalibration of young investors’ priorities. Unlike the millennial generation, which was more enthralled by Silicon Valley and cryptocurrencies, Gen Z seems less convinced that digital disruption alone will secure prosperity. Their pivot to gold and silver reflects a desire for permanence in a world of flux. It may also be a quiet vote of no confidence in policymakers’ ability to deliver stability.
In that sense, bullion’s glitter among the young is not just a passing fad. It is a signal that trust in financial orthodoxy is eroding. Gold, the ultimate ancient asset, has become a thoroughly modern barometer of generational unease.
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