Precious Metals Start 2026 With Strong Gains

Key Concepts

• Precious Metals Bull Market: A comprehensive rally encompassing gold, silver, platinum, and mining stocks, driven by factors like dollarization, inflation, and accommodative monetary policy.
• Shift in Investment Landscape: A move away from Bitcoin and US stocks towards gold, silver, and international stocks, particularly emerging markets.
• Bitcoin Narrative Collapse: The debunking of Bitcoin as a “digital gold” equivalent, with anticipated continued decline in value.
• Mining Stock Opportunity: Mining stocks are currently undervalued despite significant gains and present a contrarian buying opportunity.
• Shift Gold Platform: A platform for purchasing, storing, and potentially tokenizing physical gold and silver.

Precious Metals Performance & 2026 Outlook

2025 was an exceptional year for precious metals, with gold increasing by 64% (the largest annual increase since 1979). However, silver and platinum significantly outperformed gold, with silver experiencing a 145% increase (peaking at $83.50, closing at $71.50) and platinum rising approximately 140-150%. This performance confirms a broader “precious metals bull market,” extending beyond just gold. This positive trend continued into the first 10 days of 2026, with gold up 4.6% (closing at $4558) and silver up 12.5% (closing near $79.84). The silver to gold ratio previously stood at 108 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold.

Previously lagging, mining stocks experienced substantial gains in 2025, with the GDX index rising 153% and the GDXJ index rising 166%. Early 2026 saw GDX up 8% and GDXJ up 7.2%, indicating they are now outperforming the metals themselves, further solidifying the bull market signal. Lower oil prices (currently around $58/barrel) are reducing mining costs, positively impacting gold miner profitability, and increased silver prices are offsetting gold mining costs, boosting overall earnings.

Shifting Investment Dynamics & Bitcoin’s Decline

A significant shift in investment performance occurred in 2025, with gold and silver outperforming Bitcoin. This trend is expected to continue and accelerate in 2026. Bitcoin experienced an 8% decline in 2025, and MicroStrategy, heavily invested in Bitcoin, suffered a 48% loss with minimal recovery in early 2026. The speaker predicts further decline for both, attributing this to institutional investors shifting away from Bitcoin. The narrative of Bitcoin as “digital gold” is considered to be collapsing, and 2026 will be the year this narrative “falls apart.” The issue isn’t necessarily mass selling of Bitcoin, but rather its presence “clouding the whole gold story.”

International Stocks & Emerging Market Potential

2025 also marked a “huge sea change” where international stocks began to outperform US stocks, a trend expected to continue for “many many more years.” The speaker’s dividend payer strategy, implemented through Europe Pacific Asset Management, achieved a 62%+ return in 2025, making it the top-performing fund in its category. While developed international markets performed better in 2025, emerging markets are anticipated to be the “sleeper fund” and outperform in 2026.

Investment Strategies & Platforms

The speaker advocates buying physical gold and silver, particularly mining stocks (through his Europe Pacific Gold Fund - EPGIX), as a contrarian play. He suggests buying silver now, anticipating rising premiums due to supply disruptions, and identifies $70-$75 as a potential support zone, but advises buying even at $79 due to potential premium increases. Shift Gold is presented as a platform for purchasing physical gold and silver, and T-Gold as a platform for storage and potential tokenization of precious metals, with transactions facilitated via BitPay. His dividend payer strategy focuses on international dividend-paying stocks, managed through Europe Pacific Asset Management.

Conclusion

The analysis points to a significant shift in the investment landscape, with precious metals, particularly gold and silver, regaining prominence as safe haven assets. This is coupled with a move towards international stocks, especially emerging markets, and a rejection of Bitcoin as a viable alternative to traditional precious metals. The speaker emphasizes the importance of proactive investment and contrarian thinking in capitalizing on these emerging trends, urging listeners to “beat the crowd” and secure their holdings in physical precious metals.