The price of gold is up. For a wave of young jewelry brands that built their businesses on the promise of high-quality pieces without the high jewelry price tag, that’s a problem. The gold spot price, which measures the metal’s real-time market value, crossed the $3,000 per ounce threshold in March 2025. By January 2026, it crossed $5,000 per ounce — a 162% increase in the last five years. Global market turmoil is the cause: investors see gold as a safe-haven asset and tend to stock up on it during periods of high inflation or a weakening US dollar. This has raised the cost of materials for jewelry brands, forcing many to increase prices. The consensus so far is that heightened gold prices are not significantly affecting consumer behavior for luxury jewelry brands; there, customers are willing to pay for what they see as a high-value investment. But in the world of demi-fine gold jewelry, which sits in between fashion and high jewelry, there is a marked shift in shopping behavior. “Jewelry generally is the canary in the coal mine, in the sense that whenever the US consumer struggles, jewelry is the first to get hit because it’s not a necessity. It’s a pure discretionary purchase,” Ankur Daga, co-founder and CEO of Angara, says. The brand most recently raised prices in December, and Daga says it typically updates prices twice a year, but that it might need to pivot to quarterly price increases. Daga points out that high-end jewelry customers are more willing to accept higher prices. “In the mid-tier, we’re seeing the exact opposite.” Demi-fine jewelry customers seem to be mirroring what many are calling the K-shaped economy: shoppers are splitting into two segments when it comes to solid gold, either opting to shop lower 10-karat items and other precious metals or staying steady with 14- and 18-karat pieces. This leaves brands with a choice: keep prices steady by lowering karat count, or raise prices and risk alienating demi-fine customers. The transition to 10-karats The current climate is helping create a new karat category in demi-fine jewelry. More brands whose pieces previously started at 14 karats are shifting their offerings to include 10k solid gold pieces that balance maintaining the precious metal as a key selling point while offering a product at a more affordable price point. Ten-karat gold contains 41.7% pure gold, whereas 14-karat gold contains 58.3% pure gold. This makes 10-karat options less fragile, unlike a more pure gold metal that’s softer, but it also makes 10-karat pieces the least hypoallergenic of gold karatages. “Ten-karat, in our opinion, is the same durability as 14 karats and our intuition was that customers were completely open to that new category,” David Benayoun, co-founder and CEO of Ana Luisa, says. The brand focuses on affordable jewelry staples, selling fashion jewelry, 10k solid gold, and 14k-plated pieces. It began offering 10-karat pieces in March 2023, and Benayoun says that over the last 18 months, its solid gold category has tripled in sales.