Gold Prices Hit New Highs Every Day Amid Growing Stock Market Uncertainties Caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's Tariff War

While domestic investors are also buying a series of gold-related securities products, virtual assets (gold coins that are linked to gold prices in the coin market) are drawing attention.

Gold prices, considered safe assets, are hitting new highs every day amid stock market uncertainties caused by the U.S.-led tariff war. While domestic investors are also snapping up a slew of gold-linked securities products, virtual assets — gold coins that are pegged to gold prices in the coin market — are drawing attention.

Gold prices traded on the Korea Exchange (KRX) gold market closed at 152,800 won ($0.13) per gram on Monday. This marks the highest price ever, rising 4.95 percent from the previous trading day and surpassing the 147,820 won recorded on March 5.

Gold prices had briefly soared in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, but soon subsided. On Oct. 23 last year, gold prices rose to 130,000 won per gram, a new all-time high, but fell back to 110,000 won after the U.S. presidential election in November.

However, as President Donald Trump took office this year and declared a tariff war, the global stock market has been fluctuating, and gold prices, which are relatively safe assets, are showing a sharp rise.

In fact, gold prices were 128,790 won per gram on Jan. 2, the first trading day of this year, but they have risen 18.64 percent in just over a month as they have reached a new high every day since then.

証券会社各社では、当面は金など貴金属価格の上昇が続くとみている。

NH Investment & Securities Hwang Byung-jin researcher said, “The diversification of foreign exchange reserves by central banks around the world, which is hedging the volatility of the U.S. dollar, is particularly concentrated on gold among major quasi-basis currencies.” He added, “Unless there is a sharp turn from the Federal Reserve (Fed) policy to austerity, nominal interest rates and dollar index rise that threaten precious metals sectors such as gold and silver will also be controlled.”

Under these circumstances, individual investors have started to sell related products, including gold and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which use them as underlying assets. This month, individual investors bought a net 19 billion won (about $16 million) worth of gold on the KRX gold market.

Investments are also flocking to domestic and foreign gold ETFs. Individual investors net purchased ACE KRX Gold Spot ETFs (139210) worth 32.4 billion won this month. Also, according to the Korea Securities Depository statistics, Seo Hak-ant purchased a net SPDR Gold ETF (GLD) worth $8.82 million (about 12.9 billion won) over the past week (Feb. 1-7).

In particular, with the recent development of the virtual asset market, “gold coins” that link prices to global gold prices are also emerging as a means of defending uncertainty.

According to CoinMarketCap, PAXG and Tether Gold (XAUT) are trading at $2898.18 and $2868.70 as of 10:30 a.m. on Monday, up 2.48 percent and 2.42 percent from the first (US Eastern Time), respectively.

On the first, global tariff risks expanded as President Trump signed an executive order to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Since that day, major virtual assets have been on the decline, but gold coins have shown a trend of increasing prices.

In fact, Bitcoin has fallen 6.36 percent since this day. Altcoins also plunged all at once. Ethereum fell 21.48 percent, while XRP and solana fell 22.53 percent and 13.93 percent, respectively.

Both PAXG and XAUT are a kind of stablecoins that are pegged to the global gold market. Just as Tether (USDT) uses U.S. government bonds and dollars as reserves, both coins have real gold as collateral. XAUT, for example, explains that it currently holds 644 gold bars totaling 7667.7 kilograms as collateral.

Both coins are linked to the price of 1 troion of gold traded on the London Gold Market Association (LBMA). It was developed to solve the problem that it is difficult to own real gold and the available trading hours vary by country.