On August 9th, the value of the yellow metal dropped below $1,700 per ounce. Gold has rebounded somewhat after falling to almost 6-month low. While writing this article, gold was trading at $1,745 per ounce. When it reached its all-time peak of slightly under $2,040 in August 2021, the precious metal had dropped by 14.6% in the previous year.
Furthermore, the precious metal has fallen 8% since the beginning of 2021 and 8.7% since it changed hands at above $1,900/oz at the end of May. The gold collapse, as per FX trader and chart expert Peter Brandt, was triggered by mass dumping. The trader said in a tweet, “This has all the hallmarks of a bank/brokerage firm executing compulsory liquidation against a big leveraged speculator.”
I've seen similar price action to $GC_F $SI_F many times over the years. This has all the finger prints of a bank/brokerage house conducting forced liquidation upon a huge leverage speculator. pic.twitter.com/MXcjwjyTsT
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) August 9, 2021
Brandt went on to say that highly leveraged traders were to blame for the gold price collapse, adding that the leverage ratio on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s gold market is about 15:1. According to the UK-based trading company City Index, the gold price drop is the result of “stop-loss linked selling in extremely thin market situation.”
As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States has fallen to 5.4%, from 5.9%. The unemployment rate has hit an all- time low since the epidemic began. According to City Index, “the stronger employment statistics drove the US dollar and US bond rates up, which is really not a good recipe for commodities.”
The drop in gold prices sparked outrage in the cryptocurrency market, which typically compares the yellow metal to Bitcoin. The numero uno cryptocurrency has managed to gain ground as gold has lost ground, shattering the three-month price slump. Nevertheless, the leading cryptocurrency has broken above the $40,000 price barrier and is now poised for future price increases.
Even though Bitcoin has dropped more than 28% of its value from its historical high, it is now trading at $43,703. At the moment, one Bitcoin is worth roughly 26 ounces of gold. When Bitcoin hit its all-time peak of $65,000 in mid-April, it was valued 35 ounces of gold.
Due to a decline in Bitcoin’s price, the cryptocurrency has outperformed gold since the beginning of 2021. One Bitcoin was worth 15.5 ounces of gold in January 2021. As the value of gold falls, the value of Bitcoin and other altcoins may rise as investors lose faith in the precious metal.