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Part 2. Gold, Bitcoin, and money that can be switched off
WHAT BILLIONAIRES BUY. PART TWO: GOLD, BITCOIN, DIGITAL MONEY
Those who print money themselves flee into gold. In the last three months central banks bought 321 tonnes of the metal, 42% more than a year earlier. And in one country people paid 64% extra for Bitcoin as soon as their cash was restricted.
Gold is currently about 3930 dollars per ounce. The price is not held up by private investors. Since the start of the year central banks have bought 675 tonnes, and the World Gold Council expects at least 848 for the year. When currency issuers buy metal, it’s worth thinking about what they actually believe in.
We see gold as the foundation of a portfolio, not a speculation. We consider the area around 3500 dollars a level at which it’s worth buying more. Only physical metal or a regulated custodian.
And here is a separate warning from us as fraud investigators. If someone offers you a “gold card” where part of the metal sits with them and “drips” 20–25% per year in grams, that is not gold. Gold pays nothing; it has no coupon. 25% in metal can only be paid by someone who pays old clients with new clients’ money. We’ve seen such schemes more than once, and they all end the same way.
Bitcoin. There can be no more than 21 million coins, and that is the main argument of those who buy it. How people behave when they are blocked from their own money was shown by Nigeria. From 9 January 2023 people there were allowed to withdraw no more than 20 thousand naira per day from ATMs, about 43 dollars. At the end of January Bitcoin on the Nigerian exchange NairaEx cost about 38 thousand dollars while the global price was 23 thousand. People paid 64% extra to exit the system.
But the claim “billionaires are now buying all the Bitcoin” is not supported by the data. Only 2 November saw 398,6 million dollars leave U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, and 30 October saw 643 million. Institutional money is currently more likely exiting, and Bitcoin itself lost almost 4% in a week. This is a bet on a distant horizon, not protection for tomorrow.
And central bank digital currencies. From 1 September 2026 Russia began a mass rollout of the digital ruble through the largest banks. Wallets sit on the Bank of Russia’s platform; the bank is only the interface. This currency differs from money on a card in that the issuer sees every transaction and can set rules for it: what it can be spent on, until which date, in which region. For a Ukrainian reader this is not abstract. This is how the financial system of the country at war with Ukraine is now set up.
Land, water, energy, metal, and a limited digital asset. One thing they have in common: none of these things can be printed.
Currency can be printed. The land on which money grows cannot.
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