Not a Price Increase, but the Collapse of the Measuring Scale
“The price of gold is not the value of metal. It is a measure of the degradation of money.”
Publication date: January 26, 2026
Published by:
MACKGOLD | OBSIDIAN CIRCLE
Department of Strategic Geopolitics and Natural Resources
mackgold.com
Introduction: a record that is not a record
At the end of January 2026, the global financial system received a new reference point.
For the first time in history, the price of gold exceeded $5,000 per troy ounce, reaching a range of $5,086–$5,091 on the world’s major trading platforms.
Formally, this is a new all-time high.
In reality, it is not a record in the value of gold, but a loss of precision in the monetary measuring scale itself.
At this point gold is not a speculative asset and not a beneficiary of panic.
It acts as a measuring instrument, recording deep structural deformations in the architecture of the global financial system.
This is not a rise in price.
It is the collapse of the unit of measurement.
Historical scale: price as a graph of monetary degradation
In 1960, the official price of gold under the Bretton Woods system was
$35 per ounce.
This was not a market price. It was a fixed conversion rate:
the dollar was directly anchored to physical metal.
In 1971, the United States abolished the gold backing of the dollar.
From that moment, the global monetary system lost its material anchor.
From that moment, the price of gold ceased to be the price of metal.
It became a graph of the depreciation of money.
Key reference points:
• 1971 — $35 (end of the gold standard)
• 1980 — about $850 (inflation crisis of the 1970s)
• 2000 — about $250 (peak confidence in financial markets)
• 2011 — about $1,900 (after the 2008 crisis)
• 2020 — above $2,000 (pandemic, monetary expansion)
• 2026 — above $5,000
In nominal terms this looks like growth.
In real terms it resembles an almost flat line.
Gold does not grow exponentially.
It simply preserves purchasing power.
The metal does not change.
The currency in which it is measured does.
Physical measure versus nominal illusion
One troy ounce equals
31.1034768 grams of pure gold.
At the current price of $5,086–$5,091 per ounce, this implies:
• approximately $163.6–$163.7 per gram,
• or about €137.7–€137.8 per gram at the current exchange rate.
One gram of chemically stable matter, unchanged for thousands of years,
now costs almost one hundred and forty euros.
This becomes especially striking when we recall that:
• one kilogram of gold now costs around $163,000,
• thirty-one grams of matter equal several average monthly incomes in developed economies,
• and hundreds of millions of people earn less than the price of one gram of gold per month.
This is not about expensive metal.
It is about the fact that human labor and state currencies are simultaneously losing scale relative to physical reality.
The metal has not changed.
The price of human units of measurement has.
Gold as a benchmark in a system of accelerated issuance
The global stock of gold grows on average by only
1.5–2 percent per year.
Over the same period:
• the U.S. monetary base has expanded more than fivefold since 2008,
• central bank balance sheets have reached historical extremes,
• sovereign debt levels in leading economies have surpassed what was once considered sustainable.
This implies a simple conclusion.
The price of gold rises not because gold has become scarce.
It rises because there is too much money.
Gold is not becoming more expensive.
Currencies are rapidly losing their ability to serve as a measure.
Structural causes: a change in architecture, not a cycle
The breach of the $5,000 level is not a market episode.
It reflects a shift in systemic parameters.
Geopolitical fragmentation.
The financial world is moving from global integration toward bloc confrontation.
Assets without an issuer become strategic.
Reserve redistribution.
Central banks are accelerating diversification.
Gold is returning to the core of reserve systems.
Debt overload.
Rising public debt makes a prolonged period of negative real interest rates almost inevitable.
Erosion of trust in reserve currencies.
De-dollarization and regional settlement systems turn material assets into universal anchors.
This is not a phase of the cycle.
It is a transformation of the financial architecture.
Silver and platinum: confirmation of a systemic shift
At the same time:
• silver exceeded $108 per ounce,
• platinum approached $2,900.
Historically, synchronized movements across precious metals accompany periods of deep monetary restructuring.
The market is not reacting to news.
It is reacting to changes in the physical density of money within the system.
Consequences: the return of material anchors
The break above $5,000 marks the beginning of a new phase.
Rising gold shares in reserves.
Financial systems reduce dependence on currency centers.
Revaluation of real assets.
Material stores of value enter a phase of long-term structural repricing.
Loss of nominal reference points.
Historical price levels cease to be meaningful.
Return of gold as a systemic element of trust.
Gold ceases to be merely an investment asset.
It becomes once again an architectural element of financial stability.
Conclusion: the price of money, not the price of metal
Crossing the $5,000 threshold is not a record.
It is an accounting entry documenting a fifty-year experiment.
Since 1971, the world has lived in a system without a physical monetary anchor.
Over that period, currencies have lost a significant part of their measuring function.
Gold has done nothing.
It has simply remained what it always was.
The historical paradox is that the price of gold has hardly changed.
What has changed is the price of money.
In this sense, $5,000 is not a ceiling.
It is merely a new mark on the scale of a collapsing measure.
That is why gold today becomes once again
not an asset,
not a commodity,
not a speculation,
but a fundamental indicator of the condition of the global financial system.
Authors
MACKGOLD | OBSIDIAN CIRCLE
Department of Strategic Geopolitics and Natural Resources