Philippe Herlin

It's funny how gold and bitcoin seem to have swapped roles since the beginning of 2025: usually placid and steadily rising, gold is now skyrocketing like bitcoin in the midst of a bull run, while the digital currency is enjoying a year of calm and stability.

As it does at the start of every year, Saxo Bank has unveiled its “Outrageous Predictions”: Beijing would launch an offshore yuan indexed to gold, which would thus become a trusted currency for trade and reserves, competing directly with the dollar.

Security must now be a central criterion for any gold holder, alongside price, purchase volume, portfolio allocation, intended holding period, and so on. Neglecting this aspect will become increasingly costly, as recent events starkly demonstrate.

Bitcoin is often referred to as “digital gold,” but its price performance since the beginning of the year has been nothing like that of the precious metal: while it has been stagnating around $100,000, gold has been breaking record after record.

Since becoming “free,” gold has risen steadily, with a few exceptions. This is precisely what the logarithmic scale chart shows, and it is particularly encouraging for the future.

France's public debt is mainly held by foreign investors and this is precisely what worries senators, the French Ministry of Finance, and the government: a loss of confidence among international investors would cause interest rates to skyrocket immediately.

The world's largest private holder of physical gold is Tether, with 80 tons worth approximately $8 billion. Why is this?

Fitch's downgrade of France's debt rating last Friday was expected. It remains to be seen whether Moody's and Standard & Poor's will follow suit on October 24 and November 28, which seems quite likely.

European public funds are pouring into Italy and Spain and largely explain their GDP growth. In France, it is based on spiraling public debt, while in Germany activity is stagnating, held back by soaring energy costs and the loss of its traditional markets.

It is not only the European project that has been struck at its core, it is the very future of the European continent that is suddenly clouded by the threat of major economic decline.

Debt is in bad shape, especially its premium component, US Federal debt, due to Trump's budget deficit, which is becoming increasingly difficult to finance. We are witnessing the beginnings of a flight from the bond market towards assets which have intrinsic value: gold.

Some pro-bitcoin people claim that crypto will downgrade and absorb gold to become the sole store of value in the future. How can we seriously envisage that gold, recognized, hoarded since the earliest civilizations, could one day be worth nothing? Wouldn't the two assets instead complement each...

The year 2025 is likely to be the year of crisis: the United States must refinance $9 trillion in debt — a quarter of its total outstanding — while financing an annual budget deficit of $1.9 trillion. A veritable debt wall. And then there's Japan, France, and so on. Will there be sufficient deman...

Yet another kidnapping attempt in Paris targeting a person connected to the cryptocurrency world. All valuable assets are in the crosshairs of organized crime, especially easily transportable real assets. The risk of aggression is increasing, and everyone needs to think about their security.

While Spain, Portugal and Italy are pulling out of their massive public deficits — Italy's public deficit has been cut from 8% of GDP in 2022 to 3.4% in 2024 — France continues to sink and is now Europe's sick man.

The idea of companies investing part of their cash in bitcoins is becoming more and more widespread, even if few actually take the plunge. Surprisingly, however, gold, which is far more widely recognized and accepted, does not enjoy comparable publicity. Why is this?

While the price of gold is breaking records and has just passed the symbolic threshold of $3,000 an ounce, bitcoin is struggling and looking for its second wind, rarely has such a marked divergence been observed. Since December 2024, bitcoin has lost 30% of its value against gold. How can such a...

There is an argument against buying gold that really ticks me off (and the same goes for bitcoin): it offers no return, no interest and no dividend, unlike conventional investments (stocks, bonds, life insurance, bank savings accounts, rental property). It would be a second-rate asset, imperfect...

Traditional portfolios, divided between equities and bonds, are less resilient to economic shocks than they used to be, as the two assets increasingly react in tandem, reducing their diversification and resilience. Another asset must therefore be included: physical gold.

A very interesting review by Éric Dor, chief economist at IESEG, summarising the exposure of French and European banks to France's debt. French banks are naturally in first place, with very high levels of exposure.