“Gold: overvalued or undervalued?” Fortune’s Alyson Shontell asked JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon this week as the spot price barreled toward $4,300 per ounce.
“I don’t know. I mean, I’m not a gold buyer,” he said before speculating that the precious metal could go to $5,000 or $10,000 per ounce “in environments like this.”
“This is one of the few times in my life I say it’s semi-rational to have some in your portfolio,” he said.
Dimon’s partial acceptance of gold as an investment follows a wild year for the metal’s price, which has accelerated in recent weeks to reach a 63% gain in 2025 so far.
That drastically outpaces shares of JP Morgan, which are trading about 26% higher, while the S&P 500 has delivered about 12.5% in the same period.
And although gold’s eye-popping prices are driven primarily by central banks and large institutions buying by the kilo, private collectors in the US have seen their coins and bars skyrocket in value as well — and Costco shoppers are bringing receipts.
In a March post this year, a Reddit user shared a photo showing the purchase of a one-ounce gold bar for $3,079.
“They got me again! I stopped by Costco for a bite at the food court and this happened,” the user wrote.
Seven months later, similar bars now sell for more than $1,300 more.
While Costco appears to have no trouble selling through its supplies of gold, HSBC precious metals analyst James Steel said in a note earlier this month that the high prices are starting to drag on sales of new gold coins and bars from some mints.
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At the same time, Steel told Business Insider there is less selling and recycling activity than might otherwise be expected as people hold out for further gains.
“Once you hit a sort of psychological level, the market could very well stabilize for a while,” he said. “We could see some profit-taking.”
Tim Heuer, a sales associate at University Coin and Jewelry in Wisconsin, told Business Insider his shop still sees robust demand for gold bars and coins. On a recent weekday, he said he opened with about six ounces of gold that were all sold before lunchtime.
In other words, high prices are causing physical gold to move pretty quickly.
“I don’t want to say the candle burns brightest before it goes out, but all rallies do come to an end,” Steel said. “But we don’t see that near-term.”
Jamie Dimon presumably has enough on his plate not to worry himself with stacking gold by the ounce. But who knows — maybe he’ll find himself in the East Harlem Costco food court with an appetite for a $1.50 hot dog and a few thousand bucks burning a hole in his pocket.
In that case, he might find himself hearing the voice of his company’s namesake, who famously told Congress in 1912 that the bank’s credit and other financial instruments are “not the money itself.”
“Money,” JP Morgan said, “is gold.”
Get the latest Gold price here.
