Crypto Not Competitive With Gold: Barrick Gold Exec

Catherine Raw, the North America COO of the largest gold mining firm in the world, Barrick Gold, said that she does not think cryptocurrencies are competitive with gold, Fortune reported on Sept. 18.

Raw made her remarks yesterday at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit, where she stated:

“The very tangible nature of gold is what keeps a special place for it. So it will always have value, whatever the price is, I don’t know, but it will not be zero. Whereas cryptocurrency could be zero — that’s the difference.”

The report points out that — so long as gold is being used for jewelry and electronics — it is guaranteed to have some value. That said, Raw also admits that “the phenomenon of cryptocurrency is here to stay.” 

Hopes to bring young investors back to gold

Raw hopes that the gold industry will be able to win back young investors between the ages of 20 and 40 that ended up preferring crypto assets to gold. Raw admitted that currently, parties buying gold are mostly the Indian and Chinese markets, institutions and central banks.

She added that among young investors, there is an impression that the only people buying gold are “old fogies who are buying it because they’re scared of the world.” She said:

“What I would like is actually to see gold harness that. [...] I think the gold industry has got its head in the sand by not taking advantage of a changing demographic. [...] My ambition over time is actually to see how as a gold industry we can harness that younger demographic.”

Earlier this month, Turkey's Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank) announced a blockchain-based platform for trading gold. Takasbank’s new project aims to enable people to transfer physical gold stored at the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange.