Chris Curl,
Editor
Jan. 15, 2026
Gold continues to do what it’s supposed to do.
Global debt keeps piling up, currencies continue to weaken, and central banks keep shifting their positions behind the scenes. As a consequence gold has pushed higher in a big way. And honestly? It feels like the real move is only getting started.
Now if you’re like most investors, you’re probably thinking the same thing everyone thinks during a gold rally:
“What’s the best way to play this?”
Do you buy physical gold? Grab an ETF? Take a swing at mining stocks?
That debate is already packed. Everyone has a take. Everyone has a favorite chart.
But while most investors are stuck choosing between bullion and miners, a smaller group is already positioning in a part of the market that has historically delivered way bigger upside in gold bull cycles.
They’re buying gold royalty and streaming companies. And more specifically, something most people don’t even know exists:
Gold scripts.
And if that term doesn’t ring a bell, that’s not an accident.
These companies make up less than 0.1% of public markets. They don’t run flashy ads. They don’t get hyped on CNBC. And most gold investors don’t fully understand how powerful this model really is.
Which is exactly why they tend to be so lucrative when gold runs.
And why this cycle could end up being even more profitable than people expect.
Most Investors Are Watching the Wrong Stuff
Physical gold is moving. Mining stocks are starting to stir. Headlines are picking up.
But here’s what most investors miss:
Royalty and streaming companies, especially gold scripts, are already outpacing the big, obvious moves.
Go back to the last major gold bull market (2001–2011). Gold rose roughly 660%.
That’s a monster return by any standard.
But mining stocks? Most didn’t come close to matching it.
Why? Because mining is messy.
Miners get crushed by:
- operational risk
- rising costs
- labor issues
- environmental delays
- political interference
- and just plain bad execution
Even industry giants like Newmont (NYSE: NEM) and Barrick (NYSE: B) had long stretches where they lagged behind gold itself.
Meanwhile, royalty and streaming companies played a totally different game.
Several rose 1,000% to 3,000%+ over the same period.
And the reason is simple:
They don’t mine gold.
They finance it.
So when gold takes off, their leverage kicks in hard.
Why Gold Scripts Are the Real “Multiplier” Trade
Gold scripts are basically a specialized, more aggressive category inside the royalty and streaming world.
In plain English?
They’re contracts that give the holder the right to buy gold at a fixed, deeply discounted price.
And that’s where the real multiplication happens.
Here’s the basic setup:
Mining companies constantly need capital to expand operations, refinance debt, or survive tough periods. But traditional financing isn’t always attractive.
Bank loans come with strict terms. Issuing stock dilutes shareholders. And when markets are tight, miners don’t exactly have a lot of bargaining power.
So instead, miners make deals with royalty and streaming firms — and especially script holders.
In exchange for upfront capital, the script holder gets the right to:
- buy gold at a fixed, discounted price, or
- collect a percentage of revenue/production for the life of the mine
And the discount can be huge.
A script might lock in gold at $600–$900 per ounce while the market price sits many multiples higher. So as gold rises, the margins don’t just improve…
They explode.
No labor strikes. No cost overruns. No permitting drama. Just pure leverage to gold with built-in upside.
That’s where the 10x–20x returns come from.
This Precious Metals Cycle Looks Even Better Than the Last One
We’re not in the early innings anymore.
We’re in the part of the cycle where the macro case for gold becomes hard to deny.
Central banks are buying gold at record pace (well over 1,000 tonnes per year). Countries that ignored gold for decades are rebuilding reserves. Sovereign balance sheets are under stress. Trust in fiat currencies is quietly eroding.
And it’s not just traditional institutions making this shift.
Even crypto-native players are moving into gold infrastructure.
Just last year, stablecoin giant Tether (USDT) disclosed investments tied to gold including royalties and physical reserves.
It’s institutional validation that gold is being treated like strategic collateral again, not some outdated relic.
And script holders are positioned to capture multiples of that repricing.
The Trump/Powell Conflict: Why Gold Just Entered Hyperdrive
Here’s where things get even more interesting.
The political dynamics have shifted and it’s directly bullish for precious metals… especially gold scripts.
Trump has made his position clear: he sees the Federal Reserve as a roadblock to growth. His public battles with Jerome Powell are basically the clearest example we’ve seen in decades of direct political pressure on an institution that’s supposed to be independent.
And that matters a lot for gold.
Here’s why.
1) Currency confidence starts to crack
When political leaders challenge central bank independence markets start pricing in the possibility that interest-rate decisions become political instead of disciplined.
That’s gasoline for gold.
Gold thrives when people lose confidence in centralized management. And the Trump/Powell tension is a real-time reminder that “Fed independence” isn’t guaranteed — especially with debt levels this high.
2) The incentives shift toward debasement
If political pressure pushes monetary policy toward easier conditions, the path of least resistance becomes simple:
Print money. Lower rates. Kick the can.
That tends to solve short-term problems: growth improves, debt looks lighter (in real terms), and borrowing costs drop.
But the cost always shows up later through inflation and currency weakness.
And gold is basically built for that exact environment.
3) The Fed’s hands get tied (this is the big one)
When debt levels explode, a tight monetary regime becomes politically unbearable.
With $37 trillion in federal debt and trillions needing refinancing at higher rates, the U.S. can’t easily tolerate “higher for longer” without major pain showing up in the budget.
So whether the Fed resists political pressure or eventually folds, the end result is similar:
The Fed loses its ability to strongly defend the dollar through rate policy.
That’s a huge tailwind for gold.
Why Gold Scripts Will Capture the Biggest Gains
When monetary policy is forced toward accommodation, gold doesn’t just drift higher…
It can rip.
And scripts, because they’re the most leveraged vehicles in this whole ecosystem, tend to deliver the most outsized returns.
Here’s the difference:
Traditional gold and mining stocks have ceilings.
Yes, they benefit from rate cuts. Gold might double. Miners might triple.
Solid returns but still somewhat bounded.
Gold scripts have no ceiling.
Because they contain fixed-price optionality.
If gold goes from $2,500 to $5,000, a script locked in at $900 becomes insanely valuable. The margin doesn’t just grow — it compounds across every ounce tied to that contract.
That’s why royalty/script-style businesses rose 1,000%–3,000%+ in the 2001–2011 cycle while gold “only” rose 660%.
And we may be heading into a similar regime now…
Except this time, the political pressure is louder, more direct, and harder to ignore.
If rate cuts start rolling in, scripts won’t just follow gold upward.
They’ll amplify it.
And that’s exactly the setup that produces 10x–20x outcomes.
The Repricing Debate Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
The U.S. officially values its gold reserves at $42.22 per ounce — a number frozen since the early 1970s.
Meanwhile, U.S. federal debt is now over $37 trillion, with trillions rolling over into higher rates over the coming decade.
That disconnect isn’t just trivia anymore.
Over the past year, Treasury officials and Federal Reserve research publications have discussed gold’s role in balance sheets and global settlement systems more openly than they have in a long time. Conversations about reserve realignment, asset backing, and monetary credibility aren’t fringe anymore.
No one knows if there’s a formal repricing coming.
But markets don’t wait for official policy announcements.
They front-run what seems most likely.
And if gold reprices…
Scripts amplify the move far more than miners and even more than traditional royalty companies.
They’re the leverage play… on top of the leverage play.
The Setup Most Investors Don’t Notice Until It’s Too Late
This pattern repeats almost every cycle:
- Gold moves first (Already happening)
- Royalty companies quietly outperform (Already underway)
- Gold scripts deliver the most outsized returns (we’re here)
- Retail shows up late after the easy multiples are gone
Some royalty and scripts positions are already up 300%–800%+ from their lows.
But others are still overlooked, priced like we’re still living under the old gold regime, not the one forming now.
And here’s the key point:
The price explosion is happening right now.
The question isn’t whether gold can keep rising — the charts are already speaking.
The question is whether you’ll capture the move through something that magnifies it… or whether you’ll end up watching from the sidelines while smarter money collects the real upside.
And the Trump/Powell conflict just added an even bigger catalyst: political pressure on monetary independence.
That removes one of the biggest uncertainties. Rate cuts aren’t just a possibility, they're increasingly certain.
When that happens, scripts won’t just rise.
They’ll explode.
The price explosion is underway.
The question isn’t if. It’s when you act.
Keep coming back,
Chris Curl
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle