Best gold ETFs for Belgians in 2025

Why you should invest in gold

Insurance against worst-case scenarios

Gold is often seen as insurance for your portfolio. If the whole financial system collapses or a big crisis occurs, like hyperinflation or war, gold usually keeps its value. In fact, it can even rise while other assets fall. History shows that in tough times, people often turn to gold. This includes the Romans, Germans in the 1920s, and more recently, savers from Turkey and Russia. In a severe market calamity, the price of gold would likely skyrocket. This “doom scenario” insurance is why some investors keep a part of their assets in gold, in case.

But, like any insurance, you do not want to overdo it. You wouldn’t insure your house for more than its value. Experts suggest that you should limit your gold investment to 5% to 10% of your total portfolio. Holding more than that is like betting on a big disaster, which is rare.

Diversification for your portfolio

Gold also brings diversification benefits. Its value moves independently of stocks and bonds much of the time. In finance, gold has a low correlation with the stock market. This means it tends to go up when stocks go down. Adding a little gold can make your portfolio steadier. When your stocks drop, gold often rises, helping to balance out losses. This low correlation is valuable for reducing volatility. A small gold allocation can help protect your portfolio when the stock market drops.

The chart below shows the correlation between gold and the MSCI World index, a diversified index of over 1,600 global stocks. While there are periods with a high correlation, there are also many periods where the correlation is close to -1, indicating that gold and the index move in opposite direction.

Hedge against inflation

Gold is often promoted as a hedge against inflation. The idea is that as prices rise, the value of gold should also rise, preserving your purchasing power. Indeed, over very long periods, gold’s price has roughly kept up with inflation.

But it’s not a perfect shield. Research shows gold is not as effective an inflation hedge as many believe. There have been stretches where inflation surged but gold lagged behind. Gold can help protect against a weak currency or inflation, but it won't always keep up with inflation each month. Think of it as one tool for inflation protection, not a guaranteed solution.

Best gold ETFs for Belgians in 2025

If you’ve decided to invest in gold, ETFs are one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to do it. They follow the price of gold, so you don’t need to store bars in your basement. And gold ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks.

However, we need to get one technicality straight. When you're investing in gold, you're technically buying an ETC, which is an exchange-traded commodity. But in practice, it behaves almost the same as an ETF as it trades on exchanges for low fees. For simplicity, people still call them "gold ETFs".

We’ve picked the best gold ETFs for Belgian investors:

• All the ETFs in our list have a total expense ratio (annual cost) below 0.2%, except the special case of a currency-hedged fund.
• They all use physical replication, buying real gold bars instead of synthetic derivatives. This means your investment is backed by real gold. Each fund securely holds gold for you in professional vaults.
• You can buy the ETFs in euros through your broker.
• The gold ETFs are accumulating (even though gold doesn't generate any dividend).

As you can see, the cheapest gold ETF in our selection is the Xtrackers fund at only 0.11% yearly fee. The Invesco and iShares alternatives are only slightly more expensive at 0.12%. The last fund is an ETF that hedges its currency to the euro. Hedging has a cost, hence the higher cost of 0.59%.

Xtrackers IE Physical Gold ETC Securities (DE000A2T0VU5)

Xtrackers offers the lowest-cost gold ETF in Europe. It has a TER of only 0.11%​. It aims to mirror the LBMA gold price (the global benchmark price of gold) by holding physical gold bars in secure vaults. Launched in 2020, it reached about €6 billion in assets under management in a short time. The ETF is 100% physically backed, with each share entitling you to a part of real gold held by the custodian. It trades in euros on the German Xetra exchange under the ticker XGDU.

Invesco Physical Gold A (IE00B579F325)

Invesco Physical Gold is one of Europe’s first gold ETFs. It was launched in 2009 and is a popular choice as one of the largest gold funds, with over €15 billion in assets. The ETF is backed by physical gold kept in vaults and held by a custodian (JP Morgan) in allocated accounts.

The TER is 0.12% per year, only slightly above the cheapest option. In practice, this cost difference is negligible as on a €10,000 investment, 0.12% is only €12 per year.

It is listed on several exchanges, such as Euronext Amsterdam, where its ticker is SGLD.

This ETF has a long track record and has consistently tracked gold's price over the years. It is a solid choice if you want a well-established fund from a major provider.

iShares Physical Gold ETC (IE00B4ND3602)

The iShares Physical Gold ETC is another contender. Managed by BlackRock, this is the largest gold ETF in Europe, with over €20 billion in assets. Launched in 2011, it aims to track the spot price of gold by holding physical bullion held in secure vaults in London and elsewhere.

Its annual fee is 0.12%, matching Invesco’s. This also makes the iShares Physical Gold ETC a great option for investing in gold. It’s often a top pick for those who value liquidity (easy to buy and sell) due to its size.

It trades on Xetra with the ticker PPFB.

Xtrackers Physical Gold EUR Hedged ETC (DE000A1EK0G3)

This Xtrackers gold ETF is a bit different from the others as it adds a currency hedge to euro. Gold is globally traded in US dollars. If you're Belgian and you invest in an unhedged gold ETF (like the previous ETFs), your returns depend on two things: the change in gold's price and the EUR/USD exchange rate. This ETF aims to remove the impact of the EUR/USD exchange rate. So through the currency hedging, you are exposed only to the change in the price of gold.

While that sounds great as it removes currency risk, it comes at a cost. The mechanics of hedging involves buying financial derivatives, which aren't free. This leads to a notable increase of the TER compared to the previous unhedged options. With a TER of 0.59%, the ETF almost three times as expensive.

Many long-term investors skip currency-hedged commodities. The costs are high, and currency movements usually balance out over time. You can see in the chart below that it has historically underperformed an unhedged gold ETF. But we include this ETF for anyone who wants to remove exposure to the USD for their gold investment.

Aside from the hedge, the ETF is similar to the others, meaning it's fully backed by real gold. Keep in mind that the fund is smaller (around €1–2 billion in size).

How to buy a gold ETF in Belgium

Investing in a gold ETF is straightforward for Belgian investors. Here’s how you can get started through a four-step process:

1. Open an account with a broker: If you don’t have one already, you’ll need a broker to buy ETFs. This could be with a Belgian bank (for instance Bolero, Keytrade) or an international online broker (e.g. DEGIRO, Interactive Brokers). Pick a broker that gives you access to the exchange where your chosen gold ETF is listed (Xetra, Euronext, etc.) and has reasonable fees.
2. Search for the gold ETF by ticker or ISIN: Once your account is set up, search for the ETF’s ticker (from our table above) or ISIN code. For example, you might enter “XGDU” for the Xtrackers Gold ETF. Make sure you select the EUR-denominated listing if multiple options appear (many brokers will show listings on different exchanges).
3. Place your order: Decide how much you want to invest (for instance, €500). Remember that ETF prices are per share. So if the price is €190 per share, buying 3 shares would cost ~€570. You can typically place a market order (buy at the current price) or a limit order (buy only if the price drops to X). For most long-term investors, a market order during trading hours is fine for these highly liquid ETFs. Confirm the order to buy the ETF shares.
4. Store and track: After purchase, the gold ETF will appear in your portfolio. There’s nothing else you need to do as the fund company handles storing the gold and tracking the price. You can hold the ETF as long as you want. If you decide to sell later, simply place a sell order through your broker.

Taxes when buying a gold ETF

When you buy or sell an ETF in Belgium, you’ll pay a transaction tax (TOB). This tax usually ranges from 0.12% to 1.32% for ETFs but for ETCs like gold, the TOB rate is 0.35%. Your broker will usually handle this automatically if you use a Belgian broker. But beware that for many foreign brokers, you have to pay and declare the tax yourself.

Why you shouldn't invest in gold

It doesn’t produce value

The biggest criticism of gold as an investment is that it’s an unproductive asset. Unlike a company stock or a bond, gold doesn’t generate any income. If you own stocks, you may get dividends; if you own bonds, you earn interest. But if you hold a kilo of gold for 10 years, in 10 years’ time you still have a kilo of gold and no extra cash. In fact, holding gold costs money (for storage or management fees). Even with an ETF (where the fund handles storage for you), you pay a small annual fee. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, called gold an “unproductive” asset in his 2011 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. That’s because it just sits there. The only way to profit is to hope someone will pay more for that gold in the future.

Low long-term returns

Because gold produces no earnings, its long-term returns have been quite modest. Over the very long run, gold has barely beaten inflation. Since 1900, gold's real return, after inflation, has been about 0.8% per year. In comparison, global stocks have returned around 6.9% per year in real terms. That’s a huge difference. Even in more recent decades, stocks have vastly outperformed gold. From 1980 to 2024, the MSCI World stock index gained about 10% each year. In contrast, gold returned only 5.9% per year annually in euro terms. In other words, €1,000 invested in a global stock fund would have grown far more than the same €1,000 in gold. So if growth and building wealth are your goals, gold is unlikely to deliver the best results. It’s more about wealth preservation than growth.

Volatility without reward

One might think that gold’s lower returns are at least very stable but that’s not true either. Gold can be quite volatile. Its price fluctuates greatly over time. Gold is very volatile but grows slowly. Stocks offer strong long-term growth to offset their ups and downs. In investing, taking on more risk is worthwhile only if you get more reward. Gold breaks that rule. It can rise or fall sharply, like in the big swings of the 1970s and 2010s. Still, in the long term, it doesn’t give returns that match those changes. This unfavourable risk/reward profile is a key drawback. It’s another reason to keep gold as a small satellite in your portfolio, not a core holding.

Diversified ETF investing: better returns than gold

Rather than picking individual stocks such as Amazon or Microsoft, index funds are a way to buy the whole market, across all sectors and regions of the world. The most famous index is the S&P 500, which contains the 500 biggest American companies. Rather than only gold mining companies, stocks from all industries are in the index. For instance, large companies such as Apple, Alphabet or Tesla are represented in the S&P 500. This is offered to investors through an instrument called an ETF. Essentially you own a small portion of thousands of companies throughout the world. Instead of betting on a particular company, you are placing a bet on the global economy. Your investments are diversified, have a lower risk and a more consistent return.

For example, you can invest in a BEL 20 ETF and benefit from the performance of all the largest Belgian stocks. Or, you can invest in a global index like the MSCI World, which consists of hundreds of stocks from many different countries. This diversification is a big benefit of ETFs. You're not putting all your eggs into one cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

ETFs perform on the long-term

Because ETFs simply track an index (which is why they're also called "trackers"), you're investing in hundreds or thousands of companies in one go. They are also low cost meaning you get to keep more of the returns.

But also, globally diversified ETFs invest in the world economy, which has grown tremendously over the last decades because of continued innovation. The IWDA ETF, which tracks the MSCI World index, returned an average 10.2% per year since 1980.

Curvo: the easiest way to invest in ETFs

Choosing the right ETFs to invest in can be a challenge. But that's not all. You have to understand the intricacies of investing, comprehend the impact of taxes on your portfolio, learning how to use your broker, and know when to rebalance your portfolio. That's why we built Curvo. To make things easy so you can spend your free time on the things that matter most to you.

Get the best portfolio tailored to you and your goals

Invest in one of five portfolios, each optimised for a particular financial goal and appetite for risk. When you sign up, you're asked a series of questions to get to know you and learn what type of investor you are. Based on your answers, we match you with the best portfolio for you.

Your financial situation and goals (and even your attitude to risk) may change over time. That's why this process is repeated regularly to make sure that your investment strategy always remains aligned to you and your needs.

Diversification at its core

Each portfolio is globally diversified and invests in over 7,500 companies. That's a lot more than investing all your savings in gold.

All your money is invested

Your investments work with fractional shares. This means that all your money is put to work. There will never be cash sitting on your account doing nothing.

No transaction tax

There is a way to passively invest in ETFs while not having to worry about the transaction tax. At Curvo, all taxes are taken care of.

Built for monthly investing

You can set up a monthly savings plan where your selected amount is automatically debited from your bank account and invested in your portfolio at the start of each month. This way, it's easy to adopt the best saving habits. Also, Curvo does not charge any transaction fees. And your investments support fractional shares meaning all your money is invested. So Curvo is ideal for monthly investing.

Conclusion

Should you invest in gold? The answer depends on your investment goals and risk tolerance. Gold can offer valuable portfolio diversification and protection during economic turmoil, but it shouldn't dominate your investment strategy. The ETFs we've highlighted provide cost-effective ways to add gold exposure, with options like Xtrackers, Invesco, and iShares offering physical backing at annual fees below 0.15%.

Yet for long-term wealth building, globally diversified ETFs that invest in thousands of companies worldwide have consistently delivered superior returns. Finding the right balance between stability and growth is what makes a successful investment strategy. If you're looking for a simpler approach to building a balanced portfolio with the right amount of diversification, Curvo's tailored portfolios take the complexity out of ETF investing, letting you focus on your financial goals rather than the technical details.