Gold Sales Spike When Crypto Market Crash, Highlighting Inverse Correlation

Daniel Marburger, Director of Europe-based online gold dealer CoinInvest, alleged the organization sold about 30 kilograms of gold, deserving over $1 mln, in simply in one day, Jan. 16, in an interview with Bloomberg Wednesday, Jan. 17.

This week has been pretty volatile for Bitcoin and several business insiders told by Bloomberg know that investors are looking for more durable assets in the meantime. Bitcoin, along with most other cryptocurrencies, felt a crash of over 40% this Tuesday, Jan. 16 that remained until Jan. 18, possibly causing a stalk in gold investment.

Marburger said Bloomberg that gold coin sales grew fivefold on Jan. 16, the corresponding time cryptocurrencies were crashing.

“[Tuesday] was a hell of a crazy day,” Marburger replied, adding that “emails and phones did not stand yet with customers asking how they could use their crypto into gold.”

A similar condition was defined by the Ireland-based GoldCore LTD, where consumers have been cashing out from cryptocurrencies and purchasing physical gold for the past three months.

GoldCore’s director Mark O’Byrne told Bloomberg via email about the anxious clients:

“They told us they were worried that the massive price appreciation was unsustainable and they got nervous about it. We think frequently people realize that these digital assets have much higher risk levels than the traditional haven asset [that is gold].”

Earlier in Dec. 2017 when cryptocurrency prices were reaching record highs, Larry McDonald, the head of US macro plan at ACG Analytics, insisted in an interview with CNBC that investors were dropping gold to buy Bitcoin during November and December 2017.

“Cryptocurrencies are surely eating into the gold play,” stated McDonald back then.

This inverse dynamic works as another proof of a possible negative correlation between investors’ attention towards gold and cryptocurrencies.