Gold falls below $4,000 as Treasury yields climb

Gold prices fell below $4,000 per ounce this week. This decline marks a one-year low for the metal.

The drop comes after gold reached nearly $5,600 per ounce in January of this year. Investors had poured money into the asset earlier in 2026 amid global volatility.

Jeff Guo, co-host of Planet Money, explained the current market shift. He identified rising Treasury bond yields as the primary factor behind the decline in gold values.

Guo noted that gold is traditionally viewed as a safe asset and an inflation hedge. However, the metal does not generate income or interest on its own. In contrast, investors can currently purchase 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS. These bonds provide returns that exceed inflation rates.

The ongoing war with Iran continues to create political instability. This instability might typically drive investors toward gold. However, the main economic effect of the conflict has been an increase in oil prices.

Higher oil prices contribute to rising interest rates. This makes bonds more attractive to investors relative to gold. As a result, the appeal of gold as a primary safe-haven asset has diminished.

In a separate financial development, North Korea’s state-sponsored hacking group TraderTraitor executed the largest cryptocurrency theft in history last week. The group stole $6.43 billion from Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange.

Elliptic, a crypto analytics firm, reported that $2.85 billion of the stolen funds has been frozen or seized. The remaining $3.35 billion is still linked to the group. TraderTraitor is actively working to launder these assets quickly to obscure their origins.

The hackers are converting stablecoins into assets like Ether that cannot be easily frozen. They are using automation to create numerous new wallets to move small amounts of crypto, avoiding detection thresholds. Elliptic reported that the group has executed more than 40,000 transactions. They are creating a new wallet every 25 seconds.

Binance has promised to make its customers whole for the lost funds. Despite this assurance, investors have already withdrawn billions of dollars from the exchange.