Online Gold Coin Sales Jumped 400% as Bitcoin Plunged

Singapore (Jan 17)  Gold coin sales jumped fivefold on Tuesday at one of Europe’s largest online dealers as Bitcoin suffered its biggest selloff since December.

The company sold almost 30 kilograms, worth $1.2 million in the spot market, director Daniel Marburger said. Bitcoin dropped 23 percent on Tuesday and slid to within $8 of the $10,000 level today. About $300 billion was knocked off the global market for digital assets in the last three days, shaking investors in the nascent market.

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“Yesterday was a hell of a crazy day,” Marburger said from Frankfurt. “Emails and phones did not stand still with customers asking how they could turn their crypto into gold.”

Bitcoin reached a record high of $19,511 on Dec. 18, and dropped close to 50 percent since. Bullion rose about 5.8 percent over the same period, hitting a four-month high at $1,344.81 an ounce on Monday.

Physical gold bullion holds attraction for bitcoin investors because the assets have much in common, according to Marburger.

“Both are limited in quantity, easy to trade and you can store them decentralized,” he said. “The advantage for gold – no passwords you can lose, the volatility is much lower, sustainable growth and in the end you can hold your investment in your hands.”