Gold miners emerged as the best “debasement trade” as Wall Street finally admits gold is no barbarous relic.
Back in April, when gold crossed the $3,000 mark for the first time, we highlighted a simple portfolio of five gold mining companies that were up 85% year to date – a remarkable increase in the first quarter.
Seven months later, gold traded up to $4,300 per ounce and now settles around $3,975 – and that same basket of miners has surged an average of 163% year to date.
Long disregarded by Wall Street, gold miners have become a predictable winner of 2025.
The Debasement Trade Goes Mainstream
The surge in gold has been widely referred to as “The Debasement Trade” — a term popularized by J.P. Morgan to describe investors fleeing fiat-linked assets for hard stores of value.
With mounting fiscal deficits, geopolitical instability, and the lingering effects of years of monetary expansion, gold has reclaimed its place as the world’s most trusted collateral. The irony, of course, is that the same easy-money policies that once rescued Wall Street are now driving the very architects of unlimited credit expansion into hard assets.
Top Performers Year-to-Date
| Ticker | Company | YTD Return |
|---|---|---|
| KGC | Kinross Gold Corporation | 159.2% |
| HMY | Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. | 94.2% |
| DRD | DRDGOLD Limited | 186.7% |
| GFI | Gold Fields Limited | 189.0% |
| AU | AngloGold Ashanti plc | 186.6% |
| Average | 163.1% |
A Decade in the Making
For years, gold bulls argued that monetary expansion and chronic deficits would eventually force a reckoning. Few expected that reckoning to arrive so quickly — or with this magnitude.
As J.P. Morgan’s analysts put it: “Investors are rotating out of fiat and into hard stores of value.”
The playbook has flipped. The same banks and policymakers who insisted inflation was transitory now hedge against the monetary dilution their policies set in motion. The “debasement trade” isn’t just a market theme — it’s the final irony of post-crisis capitalism: Wall Street now profits from protecting investors against the very system it built.
Bottom line:
Gold has reemerged as both signal and sanctuary. In 2025, it’s not the fear trade – it’s the rational one. For those who positioned early, the most profitable hedge of 2025 was contrarianism against the false claims that money printing comes without cost, or that gold is a barbarous relic.
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