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While gold prices are inching higher as oil slides on optimism over a potential US-Iran deal.
The first quarter of this year was quite volatile and ended up a volatile quarter for commodities, with the U.S.Iran war triggering a massive energy spike.
Yet gold did fall in March, dropping from a record 5600.
Down to around 4600, but underneath that price drop, central banks scooping up a staggering 244 tons in Q1 alone.
Now the world's oldest asset is making a pivot into blockchain technology.
Joining me live at consensus is David Tate, who is the CEO of the World Gold Council.
David, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Well, there are a lot of conversations that are taking place on gold here at Consensus 2026, but tell us about the role of monetary policy, in particular interest rates.
Well, uh, to be honest, my main driver, the main driver for gold price rally over the course of the last few years has been obscured by the focus on monetary policy to some extent and things like tariffs, and even if you, if I dare say, things like wars, which I believe all of which are largely transitory.
I think the main driver that has driven both central banks and individual and institutional buying of gold over the last few years has been a fear of debt spiral.
And the one thing that's run through every single rally and been a consistent theme has been that, and we're seeing it every single day.
The main reason we're seeing central banks continually buying, they're doing it because they manage their portfolios much like you do yourself, but most of the eastern central banks have been the main buyers, and the reason they're doing that is because they're vulnerable.
They need that gold in their portfolio, but every single person is scared of that debt runaway.
Because the point at which you are unable to finance your debt is the main reason people have been buying gold and adding, adding it to those reserves.
So, I'm, I'm less worried about the monetary aspects.
Um, is the, are the yield curves steepening?
Is it our higher rates, as some would say, going to force a decline in gold?
No, I would say it's the reasons.
That the interest rates are going high are the main drivers, not the high rates in of themselves.
If people are worried about debt, which is what I think is driving, for instance, UK high yields up, and people will continue to buy gold, this is that, it's that Armageddon scenario that I think is the main driver.
And David, while I have you here, I do want to point out the fact that the precious metal, uh, gold, in particular, it is a physical asset, and you and I are here at Consensus 2026, and we're talking about digital assets.
So give us your take on crypto.
Crypto as a whole, I would say from a portfolio perspective, if you're a crypto or Bitcoin buyer, it makes sense for you to have gold in your portfolio as well, because we've noticed that, as everybody else has, that Bitcoin is highly correlated to risk assets.
If you want an offset, a balance, a diversifier in your portfolio, gold is the right thing to have.
But back to the point about digital gold, what we are trying to, trying to overcome is the fact that to Digital digital gold or gold tokens have been largely unsuccessful to date, notwithstanding the fact that there is $4.5 billion in them, in the big names, as you no doubt know.
But really, that's, that's a drop in the ocean in worldwide assets.
And the question is, why is that?
And we think the main reason is because the market, the gold market is very fragmented.
It's, it's very liquid.
But it's not very homogeneous.
It's not very fungible.
It comes with an awful lot of head scratching and risk involved in it, compared to other asset classes, at least.
So, what we are proposing is to create a platform across which everybody will have the risk.
The asset class will be de-risked, and that's what we're called in gold as a service, and that's the reason we're here.
Yeah, so I do want to hear more about why World Council is here, and you mentioned uh the narrative surrounding digital gold, but give us your take on risk versus opportunity in this space.
Well, um, as it currently stands, Uh, there is a, a, a fair amount of risk in the gold market.
Not, not really from a price perspective, which I think is, it's very liquid nowadays.
I don't think you stand many risks.
There's always a price in that market, um, even if volatility of late has been, uh, Questionable, shall we say.
But opportunity, uh, is, is the thing that has been missing in the past.
Um, many people have stared at this space and, and not really understood it enough to get involved.
They've always wanted to.
Some people, as you know, are stringent gold bucks and will buy.
Gold in whatever form they can, but probably always in physical form.
Not many people are entering into gold tokens because you have questions to ask.
Does it exist?
Is it gold back?
Can I redeem it?
Um, is it, uh, what's, what's the, the, um, Compliance behind it and all those different things, whereas what we're trying to do is take all those worries away.
So the opportunity becomes endless because we will control all the important parts, all the custody problems, all the compliance, all the regulatory, all the provenance as the gold being sourced responsibly.
All you need to do is back into our, think of it as the Apple store for gold.
Yeah, and a lot of conversations that I'm having on the ground here at Consensus 2026 have to do with security as well.
So what myths would you like to dispel when it comes to digital gold?
Well, it's very interesting.
So, uh, we are at firsthand one of the, uh, well, let me put it another way, we own GLD.
And GLDM, the two largest gold ETFs in the world.
And we still have questions today about people who wander up at events like this and others.
And made some gold events, and they'll say, you don't really have all those gold bars, do you, behind the ETF.
It's funny, and it is.
It really is funny, but I've seen them all.
They do, and we have counts on a monthly basis.
It's ridiculous.
One of those myths I'd like to dispel is the fact that gold-backed assets really are fully gold-backed.
That would be what I'd like to do.
I'd like to also make people understand that one of the things that the gold market is intent on doing is standardizing everything.
That's one of the things, we've got to look and feel like other asset classes.
We cannot have, we cannot have situations where people look at two pieces of gold and don't know, have to reevaluate every single time.
Gold will be gold, will be gold, and that is one of the things that people need to look forward to.
Well, David, it was wonderful to speak with you.
Thank you so much for joining us here at Consensus 2026.
I appreciate your perspective as well as your insights.
Pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
