Video News/In Focus with Jeremy Szafron

(Kitco News) - Gold has stopped taking its cues from interest rates and is now driven by the "debasement trade," part of what he calls "scarcity season," a rally lifting gold, silver and Bitcoin together, according to Ran Neuner, founder and host of Crypto Banter. Speaking with Kitco News, Neuner said gold has broken the roughly two-decade link that tied it to real interest rates and now responds mainly to liquidity. He pointed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's plan to buy back long-dated debt, which he characterized as "printing money to buy back their own T-bills," pushing investors toward scarce assets. Neuner said he does not expect a September rate hike, arguing that today's inflation stems from a war-driven supply shock that higher rates cannot fix, though he did not rule one out. He described himself as long gold, silver, platinum, copper and, most aggressively, Bitcoin, and expects gold to run first, then silver, then copper. Neuner, who says he lost $130 million in four days on a single position, now caps most holdings at 5% to 7%.