Are Diamonds a Store of Value in 2026? Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend – Really?
December 9, 2025
The diamond market is currently experiencing something that seemed unthinkable for decades:
The prices of natural diamonds have fallen to the lowest level this century.
Never since 2000 have diamonds been traded so cheaply; never has their status as a store of value been so strongly questioned as it is today.
The myth of the diamond's eternal value is crumbling – and faster than the industry can react.
While gold remains stable and even benefits, diamonds continuously lose price, significance, and trust. But what is the reason for this historic slump of a gemstone that was considered the epitome of luxury for decades?
For many years, it seemed as if the diamond was beyond all doubt. Demand was stable, prices rose slowly, and the "Diamonds are forever" myth worked reliably.
However, the market has been changing dramatically for several years:
The latest market analyses paint a clear picture:
2024/2025 marks the lowest point of the last 25 years.
Prices that once grew consistently have downright collapsed.
Synthetic diamonds are:
optically identical
available in large quantities
up to 80% cheaper
This eliminates the most important value factor of the natural diamond: artificial scarcity.
The two most important sales markets, of all places, are buying less.
The purchasing decision is shifting – away from the status symbol, towards alternative luxury goods.
Many wholesalers report:
growing inventories
lower margins
decreasing trading volumes
What was once a coveted, scarce commodity is increasingly becoming a market with an oversupply.
The central question is:
How could a market that was stable for decades plummet so drastically in such a short time?
It is a combination of four forces working together:
Technology (Lab-Grown Diamonds)
It removes the "rarity" prestige factor from the diamond.
Changing Purchasing Behavior of Younger Generations
Sustainability, price consciousness, and transparency become more important than luxury tradition.
Lack of Price Transparency
Consumers are increasingly unwilling to accept markets whose prices are essentially determined by marketing.
Macroeconomic Uncertainty
In uncertain times, money flows into true preservation of value – not into gemstones.
Diamonds are thus facing a structural problem that cannot be corrected with advertising.
While diamonds fall, what has always been historically true is once again evident:
🔸 Gold is not a lifestyle product – but a wealth anchor.
🔸 Gold has a real market value – worldwide, immediate, and independent of trends.
🔸 Gold benefits in uncertain times – diamonds lose in them.
Gold doesn't have to reinvent itself.
It doesn't have to sparkle like a gemstone.
It simply fulfills the same task it has for millennia: securing value.