As the price of gold plummeted over a span of forty minutes, one young investor recounted attempting to authenticate their identity via fingerprint recognition more than a hundred times. "Everyone was trying to buy the dip, but I just couldn't get the order through. I ended up falling asleep while repeatedly tapping the screen," the post-2000s investor shared. Recently, certain banks have experienced a phenomenon where their gold accumulation products are inaccessible for purchase, a sign of extremely high trading activity. On February 3rd, Wang Pengbo, a senior financial industry analyst at Broadcom Analysis, commented that this situation arises from a sudden, concentrated surge in trading demand triggered by gold price volatility, which directly exceeds the processing capacity of banking systems. This is compounded by banks proactively managing their trading pace. He characterized it as a temporary operational issue rather than a problem with the product's fundamental logic or a systemic market risk; it primarily reflects the banking sector's lag in adapting its capacity to handle trading peaks.
The predicament of being unable to execute purchases was illustrated by an interface screenshot of a bank's gold accumulation product purchase page, provided by an interviewee. Dongdong (a pseudonym), born in 1989 and working as a real estate agent in Shenzhen, revealed to the reporter on the evening of February 3rd that she had recently purchased gold accumulation products at an average price of around 1,190 yuan per gram from a major bank. She had bought between 100 and 200 grams in total, investing several hundred thousand yuan. "At the time, the orders wouldn't go through, but later I managed to get them executed. Shortly after my purchase, the gold price became volatile and has since dropped to around 1,090 yuan per gram," she stated. "I was just following the trend for fun. A friend who works at a bank told me gold had been performing well in recent months, offering potential investment returns of around 20%. I didn't expect to get caught in a position immediately after buying," Dongdong admitted frankly, noting that gold investment carries significant speculative elements and high risk, and she plans to exit once she breaks even.
Dongdong expressed that gold investments can lead to losses of both principal and potential gains in a short period, making them far less stable than property investments. "Even if property prices fall, you still own the physical asset—a house. If gold prices drop, you're left with nothing," she reasoned. She mentioned that some of her friends had used leverage, and were deeply distressed, "crying every day" following the recent sharp decline in gold prices. A netizen using the handle "Caribbean Yellowfish Captain" told the reporter that they began learning about gold when the price was around 370 yuan per gram and started buying gold accumulation products when it reached over 400 yuan per gram. This investor has also purchased physical gold from banks and engaged in both long-term and short-term strategies. "More and more people are buying gold now; it's crazy. There are very few platforms that offer 24-hour trading. I used to sell at highs and buy back at lows, but now I can't even buy at the lows because there are too many buyers," the netizen claimed.
"During periods of extreme price surges or plunges, it's common to be unable to purchase gold accumulation products," shared a female investor in her 30s from Shanghai. She had intended to buy the dip when the price fell sharply in the afternoon, dropping below 1,000 yuan per gram. "I wanted to buy at the market price, but I couldn't get the trade to execute. It was impossible to complete a transaction. Later, a friend suggested placing a limit order. I kept raising my bid, eventually succeeding at 1,002 yuan per gram, confirmed by an SMS notification," she explained. The reporter learned that when transactions for gold accumulation products fail, some bank interfaces display messages such as "High trading volume or sudden surge in transactions, please try again later," "Too many concurrent visitors, please attempt later," or "Unable to process your request; please contact online客服 or call customer service for inquiries."
Another investor shared their experience of staying up until midnight hoping to buy gold accumulation products, only to find the bank system seemingly "unresponsive," forcing them to watch helplessly as the opportunity to "get on board" passed them by. "I can understand not being able to buy for a few minutes, but for a full half-hour, it was still impossible to get an order through," they lamented. "I entered my password over thirty times; I practically wore out the keys trying to buy, but it was no use," recounted another woman in her 30s. "From 1,050 yuan down to 1,000 yuan per gram, every time the price dropped, I couldn't buy. Then the price would bounce back up. Eventually, I just gave up and stopped trying." Another post-90s investor offered a different perspective: "Sometimes not being able to buy is a blessing in disguise. I kept clicking and finally succeeded at 1,007 yuan per gram, but shortly after, the price dropped to 991 yuan. So, it's like the old saying: a loss sometimes spells a gain."
Wang Pengbo elaborated that the sudden, short-term spike in trading volume directly breached the system's processing limits. Furthermore, banks, considering risk management, proactively adjusted business access thresholds and trading rules. Regarding the current popularity of gold accumulation products, Wang believes it closely follows short-term gold price fluctuations. He does not expect the market to remain at peak activity levels indefinitely; eventually, it should stabilize to align with conventional investment demand. He predicts that banks will likely respond by raising access thresholds, implementing trading limits, adjusting fee structures, and optimizing their product offerings. This could include launching complementary gold-related derivative products to help smooth out future short-term trading peaks.
In the current investment landscape, gold accumulation products have become a popular wealth management choice for many ordinary investors due to their characteristics of "small, regular contributions" and "pricing by the gram." Against the backdrop of significant recent gold price volatility, several banks have adjusted the minimum purchase amounts for their gold accumulation services and issued related investment risk warnings. Industrial Bank announced that, effective February 4, 2026, the minimum single purchase or new fixed investment amount for transactions based on currency would be raised from 1,200 yuan to 1,400 yuan. The minimum purchase weight for transactions based on grams remains unchanged at 1 gram. Existing fixed investment plans set by customers will continue under their original terms unaffected by this adjustment; however, modifying an existing plan will require meeting the new minimum amount threshold. Industrial Bank also cautioned that precious metal prices have recently experienced significant volatility due to multiple factors. To mitigate risks associated with market fluctuations, the bank advised users to closely monitor the precious metals market and price trends, manage positions prudently based on their financial situation and risk tolerance, enhance risk awareness, make careful decisions, and invest rationally.
China Construction Bank stated that starting from 9:10 AM on February 2nd, the minimum starting amount for regular gold accumulation plans (including average daily accumulation and self-selected date accumulation) under its personal gold accumulation service was increased to 1,500 yuan. Regular accumulation plans successfully set before this adjustment will continue unchanged. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China announced that, starting February 7th, it would implement quota management on its Ruyi Gold Accumulation service during weekends and statutory holidays—non-trading days for the Shanghai Gold Exchange. These quotas may include daily accumulation/redemption limits for the entire service or individual clients, maximum single transaction amounts for accumulation or redemption, and will be dynamically adjusted. Physical gold withdrawal remains unaffected. Separately, Ping An Bank increased the minimum investment amount for fixed investment plans based on currency within its Ping An Gold Accumulation service from 1,100 yuan to 1,200 yuan, effective January 29th.
Furthermore, some banks have revised the required risk assessment level for accessing gold accumulation services. For instance, since January 12th, individual clients wishing to open an account, make active purchases, or set up new fixed investment plans for gold accumulation products at ICBC must first undergo a risk tolerance assessment using the bank's standardized questionnaire. They need to achieve an assessment result of C3-Balanced or higher through channels like bank branches, online banking, or the mobile app, and also sign a gold accumulation risk disclosure document. On January 30th, Bank of China issued a risk prevention notice, reminding clients to engage in precious metals trading based on their own financial circumstances and risk appetite, reasonably control their precious metals position sizes, and guard against the risk of capital loss stemming from price volatility in the gold market.
Wang Pengbo recommended that regulators and banks strengthen risk warnings and information disclosure. He suggested utilizing professional channels to better educate investors about gold investment, guiding them to participate based on their individual risk tolerance and fostering a long-term asset allocation mindset. This aims to prevent investors from making emotionally driven trading decisions triggered by short-term price swings. "Looking ahead, the overall growth rate of the gold accumulation business is likely to slow down. The industry will gradually shift from a previous focus on scale towards an emphasis on quality. Products will be designed with different tiers, and there may even be the development of structured products linked to gold, catering to investors with varying risk preferences. The entire business is expected to move towards greater standardization and differentiation," Wang concluded.
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