Gold Climbs to Record Over $5,100 as Debasement Trade Picks Up

(Bloomberg) — Gold climbed to a fresh record above $5,100 an ounce as geopolitical risks and a flight from sovereign bonds and currencies extended the metal’s rally.

Bullion climbed as much as 3.6% on Tuesday to an all-time high of $5,187.37 an ounce, as the dollar tumbled after President Donald Trump said he was not concerned with a decline in the US dollar. Gold’s advance was its biggest intraday gain since April, and extended gains from the past six sessions. Silver held near a peak after jumping more than 9% earlier.

Most Read from Bloomberg

A wave of investment demand has sent precious metals sharply higher this month, with gold up nearly 20% and silver up more than 50% since the start of January.

Recent weeks have seen a revival of the so-called debasement trade, as investors retreat from currencies and Treasuries. A massive selloff in the Japanese bond market is the latest example of concerns over heavy fiscal spending, while speculation that the US may intervene to support the yen has weighed on the dollar, making precious metals cheaper for most buyers.

Trump told reporters in Iowa that the dollar was “doing great” and he expected currency values to fluctuate. “No, I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters when asked if he was worried about losses in the dollar that have dragged the world’s premier reserve currency to its weakest level in nearly four years.

Trump Says He’s Not Concerned With Decline of US Dollar

The Trump administration’s actions — threats to annex Greenland and military intervention in Venezuela, as well as renewed attacks on the Federal Reserve’s independence — have also unsettled markets.

US President Donald Trump also threatened to hike tariffs on South Korean goods, citing what he said was the failure of the country’s legislature to codify a trade deal. The warning followed a threat over the weekend to impose 100% tariffs on Canada if Ottawa reaches a trade agreement with China.

---

America’s growing isolation from other nations is prompting many investors to cut holdings of dollar assets and shift into gold, according to Europe’s largest money manager, Amundi SA.

“Gold in the long term is a very good protection against debasement and a good way to maintain some purchasing power,” Vincent Mortier, Amundi’s chief investment officer, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Bullion’s appeal is also showing up in positioning data, with options traders bracing for further gains in a market where few are willing to bet against the rally. Implied volatility on Comex futures climbed to the highest since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, while volatility on State Street’s SPDR Gold Shares — the world’s largest bullion-backed exchange-traded fund — has also moved sharply higher.

Silver traded near an all-time high above $117.71 reached in the previous session, when it posted its biggest intraday jump since the global financial crisis in 2008. The rally has been supported by strong physical demand and speculative interest in a relatively illiquid market, with signs that buyers in China are leading the move.

Extreme price swings in silver have driven heavy trading volumes in iShares Silver Trust, the largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, with almost $40 billion in turnover recorded on Monday.

That’s almost on a par with the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF and exceeds the $23 billion of trading in Nvidia stock or Tesla’s $22 billion in turnover. A few months ago, daily trading in the silver ETF was about $2 billion, before it increased to around $10 billion in late December.

CME Group’s metals complex reached a new single-day record of about 3.34 million contracts on Monday, up 18% from the previous daily record of over 2.8 million contracts on October 17, it said in a statement.

Gold rose  to $  an ounce as of   in New York. Silver advanced  to $. Platinum advanced while palladium fell. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid 1.1%.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

MORE IN INSIDE CRYPTO

Bitcoin price steadies but fresh fears suggest slide to $52k

Published: Thursday, February 12, 2026 · 10:12 AM

This 1 Quantum Computing Rumor Is Making Investors Sell Their Bitcoin. Don’t Fall for It

Published: Thursday, February 12, 2026 · 9:20 AM