Bank of Korea Breaks 13-Year Streak With Gold ETF Purchase

The Bank of Korea has disclosed a $250 million position in a gold exchange-traded fund (ETF). The stake marks its first gold-linked investment in 13 years.

The move gives South Korea’s central bank exposure to gold prices without expanding its physical bullion reserves.

Filing Shows a $250 Million Gold ETF Position

The BOK held 679,765 shares of SPDR Gold Shares at the end of June. The stake was valued at $250.4 million in a filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

That same document lists four holdings worth $3.89 billion in total. Gold accounted for roughly 6.4% of the disclosed portfolio. It reported no such position three months earlier.

Gold ETFs count as securities and are held within South Korea’s foreign-exchange reserves. Physical bullion is treated as a separate long-term reserve asset. This means that the purchase leaves the official stockpile at about 104.4 tons, unchanged since 2013.

However, earlier in August, the central bank said it built a framework for domestic gold purchases, its first such step in almost six decades.

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Central Bank Gold Demand Hit a Record Second Quarter

Meanwhile, other central banks combined added a net 289 tons in the three months through June. This marked the strongest second quarter ever recorded, the World Gold Council said.

Poland led with 51 tons. The BOK sat out that run. Its last physical purchase came in 2013, when it added 20 tons. China, by contrast, added about 20 tons in July alone.

Investor demand has turned as well. Gold-backed funds pulled in $3 billion in July, ending a two-month outflow streak. Whether the BOK expands from ETF exposure into bullion will surface in its future reserve reports.

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