2025 closed the longest chapter in modern gold history. The price averaged well above $3,000 an ounce, and — most remarkably — in real, inflation-adjusted terms it finally surpassed the 1980 peak. The 45-year wait for that high to be beaten, the longest real bear market in monetary history, was over.
The drivers were structural rather than speculative: record central-bank accumulation, the lingering lesson of frozen reserves, persistent deficits, and a steady erosion of confidence in paper money. Half a century after Nixon cut the anchor in 1971, gold had completed its journey from $35-by-treaty to a market-set verdict on the world's monetary order. The full story is told in Gold in the Free-Float Era; see what any year's investment would be worth on the calculator.
Key events of 2025
- 2025-01-01
A new real high
Gold surpasses its 1980 peak in inflation-adjusted terms, ending the longest real bear market on record.