With gold prices setting new all-time highs this week, customers have been cramming into stores in Shanghai and Hong Kong that sell the precious metal, with some betting the price could rise even further.

"There are still quite a lot of people buying it, because gold awareness is a long‑term trend and it’s still heading upwards," gold seller Zhao Jinhao said on Tuesday at a jewellery mall in Shanghai.

"It’s risen from just over 20 yuan back in the 1980s to more than a thousand yuan now, and it has been on an upward trajectory the whole time."

Gold prices XAU= surpassed $5,100 per ounce on Monday after a 62% surge in 2025. The record-breaking run has been propelled by central bank buying to reduce reliance on the US dollar and strong demand across the board from buyers looking for a safe-haven asset after the tumultuous first year of US President Donald Trump's second presidency.

Analysts at Societe Generale said on Monday they expect to see gold reach $6 000/oz by year-end, a forecast they said was conservative because prices could well go higher.

Sixty-eight-year-old Shanghai resident Wang Qiuqin appeared to agree, saying the "crazy" rise in prices had spurred her to visit a gold store to make a purchase.

"If this keeps up, gold is still likely to go higher. I can still mentally accept the current price level, so I decided to come buy some."

In Hong Kong, Simon Littmann, the executive manager of Swiss Investors Corporation Limited, which trades in precious metals such as gold and silver, said business in January this year was his best ever in around 20 years in the trade.

“Last year was probably our second-busiest year, and this year is looking to get very busy, but we have supply problems," he said.

The supply of small gold bars has been delayed due to strong demand and as refineries around the globe rush to boost production of the products for the retail sector, he added.

While many others are also not deterred — China's central bank bought bullion each month last year — higher prices are still having an effect on demand. Wholesale gold demand in China fell 11% last year as higher prices and reforms that raised taxes weighed on jewelry demand despite more interest in investment-style bars and coins.

Record prices are leading others to cash in. Dozens of people queued outside the door of the Chong Kee gold shop in Hong Kong’s central business district on Tuesday waiting for the chance to trade in gold and silver. Some had to wait hours to enter the premises, where they had trinkets like bracelets, necklaces, small statuettes and bars put onto scales to be weighed.

"It will definitely go higher. Society is so chaotic and unstable now,” said Cherry Tam, a retiree who sold a few gold items given to her on her wedding day decades ago. “With the economy not so good, I can get back some money to spend."

Dick Liu, a 79-year-old gold craftsman who has been in the industry for more than 50 years, said the uncertain times would continue to fuel the boom, something he had not seen in all his years in the industry.

“Trump, being like this now, gold will keep going up. It won’t fall. He’s a madman, don’t you think so?”