Video News/Rule Symposium 2026

(Kitco News) The widely repeated claim that Western investors abandoned gold during its steepest quarterly drop in more than a decade does not hold up against the data, according to the World Gold Council. Speaking with Kitco News at the Rule Symposium 2026 in Boca Raton, WGC senior market strategist Joseph Cavatoni said the selling was concentrated among North American, mainly US, investors exiting gold ETFs on concerns over higher interest rates, while Asian buyers accumulated at "a record pace" and physical demand held firm around the world. Gold's worst quarter in 13 years, he argued, reflected short-term traders rather than any breakdown in the long-term case, noting that as a safe haven, gold "cuts both ways," bought as prices climb and sold for liquidity and margin calls after a 160% run to January's record high. Cavatoni said the market's most important buyers never stepped away. Central banks continued accumulating well above their long-run average, and the WGC's latest survey found nearly 90% of respondents plan to hold or increase their gold holdings in the coming years. He said it is "probably fair to say" gold has now overtaken US Treasuries as a reserve asset, while stressing that central banks are not abandoning the dollar but seeking their one reliable diversifier. Cavatoni also pointed to gold's growing role as Tier 1 collateral, now accepted by clearing houses, central banks, and even crypto lenders, and to a new Hong Kong and Shanghai clearing platform designed to give Asia its own gold price benchmark.