What Are The Latest Gold Prices And Why Did Bitcoin Breakout Causing Huge Crypto Liquidations?

Ever feel like you’re hearing about gold and crypto everywhere at the moment? One minute, your mate is talking about the price of gold going through the roof, and the next, you see a headline about Bitcoin doing something completely bonkers.

It can feel like trying to follow a really complicated film plot. You know something big is happening, but the details are a bit fuzzy. So, let’s grab a coffee and break it down. What is actually going on with gold prices, and what’s all this chaos with Bitcoin and liquidations? It’s a wild ride, but it’s simpler than you think.

So what’s the deal with this gold bull run?

Right, let’s start with gold. For the past few years, it’s been on what the experts call a “bull run.” That’s just a fancy term for when prices are consistently charging upwards, like a bull. And they really have been charging. Back in October 2022, an ounce of gold would have set you back about $1,618. Fast forward to July 2025, and that same ounce hit an all-time high of over $3,500. That’s more than double in less than three years. That’s a serious price jump.

This didn’t just happen overnight. Big-time investors started piling in around those October 2022 lows and didn’t really let up until September 2024, by which point gold was already near $2,730. People who watch the markets closely look at something called the Commitment of Traders (COT) report. It’s basically a peek behind the curtain that shows who’s buying and who’s selling. And the COT report has been showing a lot of buying for a long time during this incredible bull run.

Who’s actually buying all this gold?

It’s not just individuals. There are two main groups of big players here: hedgers and central banks. Hedgers sound complicated, but the idea is simple. Imagine you own a massive gold mining company. Your whole business depends on the price of gold. To protect yourself from prices suddenly crashing, you can use the market to ‘hedge’ your bets. And when gold prices are high, these companies make a fortune. For example, the mining giant Newmont saw its revenue in the first quarter of 2025 hit $5.01 billion, a big jump from $4.023 billion in the first quarter of 2024, mainly because of high gold prices.

Then you have the really, really big players: central banks. These are the giant banks that manage a whole country’s money. And they have been buying gold like it’s going out of fashion. According to the World Gold Council, in 2024, they bought nearly 1,045 metric tonnes of it. For the third year in a row, they bought over 1,000 tonnes. Why? Well, with all the global uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and worries about inflation risks, they see gold as a safe bet. It’s a way of moving some of their country’s wealth away from relying completely on the U.S. dollar.

What could happen next to keep this going?

There are a couple of things on the horizon that could push gold prices even higher. First, the People’s Bank of China, which went on a big buying spree in 2024, looks set to continue. It’s tricky to get exact numbers from them, but all signs point to more buying.

Second, and this is a big one, there were reports over the weekend of July 13, 2025, that the American Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, might be resigning. The ‘Fed’ is America’s central bank, so its boss is one of the most powerful people in the global economy. If he’s replaced by someone more ‘dovish’ (a term for someone who likes to keep interest rates low), it could lead to lower short-term interest rates. That tends to weaken the U.S. dollar, and a weaker dollar usually means stronger gold.

Is there a plot twist that could spoil the party?

Of course, there’s always a ‘but’. What if a new, super-dovish Fed chair comes in and slashes rates while the economy is actually doing quite well and employment is strong? That could make everyone panic about inflation. You know how when something is suddenly cheap, everyone rushes to buy it, and prices go up? A bit like that, but for the whole economy. These inflation risks are a major factor.

If that happens, investors might demand higher interest on long-term loans to protect their money from this expected inflation. This would be a problem for gold, as it doesn’t pay any interest. Suddenly, those loans look more attractive. In that scenario, speculators could lose money, and even the professional hedgers might feel less of a need for gold’s protection if the U.S. dollar looks like it’s getting its act together. It’s a delicate balancing act.

Meanwhile, in the wild west of crypto…

And just when you think gold’s journey is a rollercoaster, let’s talk about crypto. On Monday, July 14, 2025, Bitcoin had what you can only describe as a massive breakout. Its price shot up past $121,000. This move sent huge shockwaves through the derivatives markets. Think of these markets as a place where people make bets on the future price of things like Bitcoin without having to own it. It’s a place for high-stakes gambling.

Explaining the $680 million crypto wipeout

When the Bitcoin price exploded upwards, it caused chaos for anyone betting it would go down. This triggered something called liquidations. Imagine you bet a friend £10 that your team will win, but you borrow the £10 from your dad. If your team is losing 5-0 at half-time, your dad might take the £10 back before you lose it completely. That’s basically a liquidation. Traders who use borrowed money (leverage) get their positions closed automatically to prevent even bigger losses. These are also known as forced closures.

Over the last 24 hours, more than $680 million worth of these crypto positions were wiped out. The people who took the most pain were those with bearish bets, they were betting the price would fall. They lost around $426 million of the total. One unlucky trader had a single bet against Bitcoin worth $92.5 million flushed away. Ouch. This wasn’t just about Bitcoin either; the pain spread to other coins like Ether (ETH) and XRP, which saw $68 million and $17 million in liquidations, respectively.

While these liquidations are brutal for those who lose, some traders see them as a healthy ‘reset’ for the market. It clears out the nervous, over-leveraged bets and makes way for the next big move. And what is that move? Many traders now have their eyes on the $130,000 mark for Bitcoin. The story, it seems, is far from over.