NEW GOLD STANDARD: METAL HITS $5,000 FOR FIRST TIME EVER
strong economic growth and high interest rates, only to roar back during crises. The 2008 financial collapse marked another turning point, launching a sustained bull market that carried gold above $1,800 per ounce by 2011. Gold’s ascent has rarely been a straight line. It moves in cycles, punctuated by corrections, pull- backs, and moments of doubt. But over extended periods, one pattern has held remarkably true: gold trends upward. The reasons are as old as the metal itself. Gold is finite, durable and universally recognized. Unlike currencies, it cannot be printed to solve fiscal prob- lems. In times of inflation, currency debasement, geopolitical conflict or financial instability, investors return to gold as a hedge — and increasingly, as a strategic allocation rather than a last resort.
of those forces. Persistent inflation pressures, massive government debt, central bank purchases and heightened geopolitical risk have all pushed demand higher. At the same time, new generations of investors — many of whom once dismissed gold as outdated — are rediscovering its relevance. Gold’s move from roughly $2,000 per ounce in the early 2020s to more than $5,000 today represents more than just price appreciation. It signals a fun- damental repricing of risk, currency confidence and long-term value. While short-term dips are inevitable — and history suggests they can come — gold’s broader trajecto- ry remains difficult to ignore. During the past 100 years, gold has preserved purchasing power through wars, depressions, booms, busts and monetary resets. Each new high has tended to look shocking in the moment, only to seem inevitable in hindsight.
effectively fixed under the global gold standard. For decades, gold’s value barely budged, not because demand was stagnant, but because governments tightly controlled its price. That changed dramatically in the 20th century’s second half. The United States abandoned the gold standard in 1971, freeing gold to trade on open markets for the first time in generations. The result was explosive. By 1980, amid runaway inflation and geopolitical turmoil, gold surged above $600 per ounce, a stag- gering increase at the time. The decades that followed were uneven. Gold drifted, sometimes languishing during periods of
The moment gold miners and gold investors were anticipating finally arrived recently as the price of the precious metal surged past $5,000 per ounce. The new record of $5,104, as of Jan. 26, follows pre- vious milestones achieved only in the past year as gold broke the $3,000 and $4,000 marks in March and October 2025, respectively. And the remarkable growth could easily continue throughout 2026 as gold prices, not accounting for some minor dips, tend to only rise over extended periods. To appreciate the significance of today’s prices, it helps to step back nearly a century. In 1925, an ounce of gold cost just over $20, its price
The surge of the 2020s reflects a convergence
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THE ALASKA MINER - THE MAGAZINE OF THE ALASKA MINERS ASSOCIATION
WINTER 2026 | ALASKAMINERS.ORG
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