Retail gold purchases have tripled over the past six months while Wall Street selling accelerated over the last four months, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) found in a quarterly review released Monday. The BIS said “retail‑driven exuberance,” increasingly routed through exchange‑traded funds (ETFs), helped drive outsized moves that extended the precious‑metal rally that began in 2025.
Since Q2 2025, retail investors have bought about $70 billion in gold ETFs, and purchases more than tripled over the last six months, the Kobeissi Letter noted, citing BIS data. “Retail investors are all‑in on precious metals,” it said. BIS data show cumulative retail inflows rose from roughly $20 billion to about $60 billion from late Q3 2025 through the end of Q1 2026.
Institutional selling began around mid‑November and picked up after the precious‑metals market started correcting in January, the BIS reported. Prices of gold and silver reversed sharply in late January and February 2026, with BIS blaming the “daily rebalancing of leveraged ETFs and margin‑triggered liquidations” for amplifying swings—especially in silver. Smaller speculative derivatives traders, or “non‑reportables,” had built heavily leveraged long positions in silver heading into the drop.
Gold is down about 9% from its late‑January all‑time high, while silver has plunged roughly 34% over the same period, according to GoldPrice. The BIS said the abrupt falls and spike in volatility highlight the role of retail flows and forced sales by leveraged ETFs, trend‑following investors such as commodity trading advisers, and margin dynamics.
The bank also linked the metals’ decline to shifting expectations about U.S. monetary policy and a stronger dollar: the DXY dollar index has risen about 4.7% since late January. “The precious metals crash seemingly coincided with shifts in expectations about the US dollar and the path of monetary policy, but it was hard to square with broader changes in fundamentals,” the BIS observed.
Crypto markets have also weakened: total crypto market capitalization is down around 43% from its October peak as retail sentiment and interest in digital assets have cooled and remain at bear‑market levels.
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