Gold and Silver Investing Never More Popular as War Erupts

Record numbers of gold and silver owners at world No.1 marketplace...

INVESTING in gold and silver has never been more popular, with investor sentiment shrugging off last month's sudden volatility before the Middle East war began, writes Adrian Ash at world-leading marketplace BullionVault.

So far in 2026, the daily count of first-time investors on BullionVault − which finds 9-in-10 of its global client base in Western Europe and North America, and which now cares for over $10.7 billion of physical precious metals for its users (£7.9bn, €9.1bn, JPY1.6 trillion) − is running 559.2% ahead of the previous 10 years' daily average.

That's taken the number of people who own securely-stored gold almost one-fifth higher from this time last year (+19.6%). The number of silver owners has jumped twice as quickly (+40.1%), also growing the fastest since spring 2021 marked the first anniversary of the pandemic lockdowns.

Looking ahead, short-term conflict rarely drives bullion prices higher − and gold but especially silver prices are in fact fading as the US-Israel vs. Iran war unfolds.

But with the hard-money precious metals now offering cheaper entry points, this new Middle East turmoil gives investors another reason to seek shelter as it destabilizes financial markets and the global economy...

...and the long-term drivers of today's precious metals' bull market remain firmly in place, from ballooning government debt to fears of inflation, worries over the bubble in tech stocks, and the breakdown of geopolitical order.

Ahead of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, bullion markets swung in February with the nastiest gold price volatility since the Lehman's banking crash of 2008.

But the 'safe haven' metal still rose to a new month-average record of $5019 per Troy ounce, marking gold's 7th new all-time high in a row (the 19th in a row in UK Pounds at £3696, the 6th in Euro terms at €4245 per Troy ounce).

The total number of people buying gold on BullionVault's 24/7 marketplace retreated by 14.1% last month from January's record gold buyers count, while the number of sellers fell 31.1% from the record it also set this New Year.

Together, that put the Global Gold Investor Index just 0.1 points below January's 62-month high, reading 58.4 as the number of investors who now own gold rose yet again, setting its 9th fresh all-time high in a row as March began.

February saw silver volatility jump to the most violent since 1987, but it was the first month in 6 that the more industrially-useful precious metal didn't set a fresh month-average record in US Dollar terms, dropping 10.4% to $82.55 per Troy ounce (the first drop in 9 months in GBP, down 10.7% to £60.77, and the first monthly drop in 9 in Euro terms, down 11.0% to €69.81).

The total number of people buying silver on BullionVault fell 20.7% from January's record high, while the number of sellers fell 35.2% from this New Year's record. That put the Silver Investor Index at 63.7, lower by 2.0 points from January's 69-month high.

Investor demand for silver outweighed profit-taking for the first time in 6 months, reversing a quarter of January's heavy net-selling and edging total client holdings 0.6% higher to 1,332 tonnes, now worth $3.2 billion − a rise of 184.2% from 12 months ago (+165.7% in Sterling to £2.4bn, +150.6% to €2.7bn).

Gold holdings in contrast fell in February for the 4th month running by weight, dropping 0.3% to the lightest in 69 months just below 43.4 tonnes.

But while BullionVault users have trimmed the quantity of gold they own as a group by 1.8% over the past 12 months, it has jumped 80.9% by value in US Dollar terms to a record of more than $7.2 billion (+69.5% in UK Pound terms to £5.4bn, +59.6% in Euros to €6.1bn).

In short, gold and silver have never been more popular, not in the 21 years since BullionVault first opened. Existing owners continue using the spikes to take a little profit. New investors are using the dips to start and build their holdings.

Together, that continues to make for very strong trading. The value of physical metal changing hands on BullionVault retreated only 29.1% last month from January's new all-time record above $1.1 billion, down to total $789 million (down 31.9% in GBP to £581m and down 32.1% in EUR to €667m).

As for new investor interest worldwide, February would have set an all-time monthly record for the number of first-time precious metal buyers if it hadn't been for January's high, with last month's count dropping 41.1% from the New Year's record.