Thomas Kaplan Warns Gold Holders of Regulatory Risks
Thomas Kaplan stated that investors holding gold should consider the perspective of the "country that is watching you mint currency": if a nation believes that external currency expansion harms its interests, it may change the rules regarding asset trading, holding, or cross-border movement.
He emphasized that if investors believe that the government will not change the rules of the game, "they are mistaken." His argument points to the core risk of gold not being price volatility, but rather the power of sovereign institutions to rewrite tax, capital control, and financial settlement frameworks under pressure.
Kaplan is the chairman of Electrum Group and also serves as chairman of NOVAGOLD and Sunshine Silver Mining & Refining; he has long bet on precious metal mining assets, with mines controlled by his investment firm previously holding about 1 billion ounces of silver resources.
This statement came during his interview with Kitco News regarding the precious metals market. He described the current pullback in precious metals as a "1987 moment" and stated that a tenfold increase in gold prices is not just possible, but "inevitable."
His warning shifts the risk of gold from supply-demand and interest rate levels to institutional levels: while gold does not rely on a single company's cash flow, it still goes through mining, storage, bank clearing, trading venues, and judicial jurisdictions; all these stages may be affected by government orders, sanctions, taxes, or capital controls.
Bitcoin's decentralized design attempts to reduce such single-point institutional dependencies: the network is maintained by distributed participants who manage a shared ledger, rather than being controlled by a single central server or authority; however, fiat currency inflows and outflows, custody, trading platforms, and individual tax obligations are still subject to the rules of various countries.
In market mechanisms, if investors buy gold due to risks from currency expansion, sovereign credit, or capital restrictions, funds typically flow into physical gold, gold ETFs, mining stocks, and futures; if policy risks concentrate on cross-border transfers and custody, assets with self-custody capabilities will gain a narrative premium, while holdings reliant on banks, brokers, and centralized platforms will face higher compliance and liquidity pressures.
Source: Public Information