The beginning of the year caught global investors off guard with a sharp downturn. Gold plummeted by 8% in a single day, and silver was even more dramatic, crashing nearly 9%. It felt like riding a roller coaster, suddenly dropping from a high point.

Where is the real problem? On the surface, the Fed's hawkish shift and renewed rate hike expectations seem to have poured cold water on the precious metals market. But if you dig deeper, you'll find more complex logic at play.

The global economic recovery remains weak, and risk aversion has naturally diminished. At the same time, the continuous strengthening of the US dollar has directly suppressed gold prices. Silver's sharper decline is not only due to its correlation with gold's financial attributes, but also because of sluggish industrial demand. Coupled with panic selling by speculative funds, it has become a perfect storm.

But here’s a key question worth pondering: Is this recent decline a short-term correction within a bull market, or a complete reversal of the upward trend? The answer might not be as pessimistic as you think.

The fundamental reasons supporting a long-term gold bull market—such as the global de-dollarization trend, continuous gold purchase demand from central banks, and persistent risk hedging needs in asset allocation—remain intact. Industry insiders generally believe that after short-term volatility, there is still room for gold prices to break upward, though this bull market may face more turbulence.

Especially considering the uncertainty around Fed policies, volatility is likely to become the norm in the future. What does this mean? For long-term investors, this sharp decline could be a rare buying opportunity; for short-term traders, it’s essential to tighten risk controls and stay alert.

The most important thing in investing is never to guess the top or bottom of prices, but to focus on whether the core logic driving prices has changed. Will gold reignite its bull market in 2026? What are your thoughts?