While financial markets have experienced notable volatility over the past several weeks, gold has remained remarkably stable. Some analysts suggest it may even hit prices over the $2,067 per troy ounce 50-year high by the end of this year, after enduring its largest price drop in seven years. That is nominally promising, but it doesn’t paint the full picture: Gold has historically been used as a hedge against inflation and market risk, but data suggests this trend is changing. Gold’s long-term growth rate is dwarfed by the returns on other investments, such as real estate or the stock market.

One of the reasons the price is climbing could be the growing anxiety around crypto volatility. Both crypto and gold are seen as “stores of value,” but if virtual currency is less stable than the price of gold, then it might be riskier to hold your assets in crypto. Gold’s biggest advantage over crypto is that the price is much less volatile, though it offers less return on the flip side of the virtual coin because of its steadier value.

Some are calling it “a new digital gold rush. ” Creators are increasingly offering products as non-fungible tokens, unique digital assets that can’t be replicated or stolen because they’re recorded on Ethereum’s blockchain ledger. One digital artist, Beeple, sold his work for nearly $70 million in the first ever NFT auction by Christie’s. As with gold and crypto, an NFT’s scarcity and even cultural significance confers its value. It’s with that context that an original Banksy print called Morons, a lampooning of the auctioneer market, was able to sell as a digital token for $380,000 last March even after it was completely burned in a livestreamed video.

As the value of gold skyrocketed during the pandemic, gold miners flouted Canadian restrictions to travel to the Yukon territory, hoping to make their fortune. Around 400 Indonesians were arrested for illegally mining gold in Kalimantan, risking not just their freedom, but their lives. And in West Africa, illegal gold mining is fueling human trafficking and proving deadly. Meanwhile, a new gold mine may be sprouting up in Idaho, with Canadian company Perpetua Resources pitching the Stibnite Mine as both a mining and restoration project. Environmental groups object to Perpetua’s plan to use cyanide to extract precious metal from the Salmon River site, which saw a gold rush in the late 1800s, and they’re calling the “restoration” aspect of the project fool’s gold.

In 1864, a hot spring containing nearly 10 times as much lithium as any previously discovered spring was found in an English mining town in Cornwall. But sans commercial uses, the lithium-rich liquid was left bubbling. Then, in the fall of 2020, a nearby site was also confirmed to have some of the world’s highest lithium grades. Today lithium is in high demand, used in everything from smartphones to electric vehicle batteries, and harvesting it from hot springs is much more environmentally friendly than mining it from hard rock. Other precious metals and rare-earth metals crucial to modern tech are also spurring a race to the Arctic, with Russia, China and the U.S. vying for an advantage.

Artists are mining the timeless gold concept for new truths. In the 2008 sci-fi goth rock film Repo! The Genetic Opera, the wealthy, dying founder of an organ transplant company sings about how gold is the only thing with permanence: “Flesh is weak/Blood is cheap,” Rotti Largo sings. “Gold, it makes the world go ‘round.” Sanjena Sathian, a former OZY editor whose debut novel Gold Diggers was released to critical acclaim in April, molds a myth about the son of Indian immigrants to the U.S. who drinks stolen gold to assume the ambitions of its original owners. The idea isn’t divorced from historical reality: In his Holocaust account Night, Elie Wiesel wrote about the demoralizing ways Nazis stole gold from Jewish prisoners and, in doing so, robbed them of hope. When his own gold tooth was saved due to the execution of the camp dentist, “I felt no pity for him,” Wiesel wrote. “My gold crown was safe. It would be useful to me one day, to buy something, some bread or even time to live.” Gold carries with it weighty dreams.

The scientific theory of gold’s origin is as poetic as any creation myth. Like most precious metals, gold was created after the Big Bang in the hearts of stars in a process called nuclear fusion. Gold wasn’t formed until the first stars began dying, forming supernovas that then exploded gold atoms and other debris across the universe. Another theory suggests gold can also be formed through the collision of two collapsed neutron stars — eight times more massive than our sun but condensed into the size of a small city. In ZME Science journalist Tibi Puiu describes the process as akin to “cramming Mount Everest into a cup of coffee.”

Given the science, various early civilizations, particularly the Aztecs and Incas, weren’t far off in calling gold the “tears” or “sweat” of the sun, which represented their most sacred deity. Its rare fluidity — from its liquid form to its ability to be molded into shapes — makes the analogy even more apt. In Hindu mythology, gold is considered the soul of the world: The personified creator was reborn from a golden egg as the lord Brahma, who was also known as Hiranyagarbha, a Sanskrit term also meaning “golden womb.”

Greek myths are full of golden references, from King Midas to the golden fleece stolen by Jason — who also possessed the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, which granted immortality. It’s suggested that as much as 2,000 years ago, the Chinese believed gold could help them live forever, although their alchemists often made the mistake of including toxic minerals like mercury and arsenic in their brews. In the 16th century, French nobles drank gold daily to prevent signs of aging — doing so despite their European neighbors having deliberately used it to kill people during the Spanish Inquisition decades before.

Some computers, particularly older ones, contain up to $10 worth of gold in their circuitry. That’s because gold serves as a particularly strong conductor of electricity: Televisions and smartphones, plus older cameras and radios using gold are known for their consistency. While two cheaper alternatives — silver and copper — are slightly better conductors, gold is often preferred because of its significantly higher resistance to corrosion.

Want to flaunt your wealth? Try eating it. Gold is a good garnish because it’s flavorless and indigestible, so it passes right through your body and thus is not toxic. (But note that edible gold should be around 24 karats — otherwise it may be mixed with harmful metals.) Ceremonial foods covered in gold dust were consumed by the ancient Egyptians and Chinese dating back to at least 2,000 B.C. Europeans enjoyed meals with gold leaf during the Middle Ages: The city council in Padua, Italy, even passed a law in the 16th century forbidding more than two gold-flecked courses per wedding as neighbors tried to outdo each other. And now, many restaurants, from Washington to Miami to Las Vegas offer edible gold dishes.

As far back as the 1920s, those suffering from arthritis were often prescribed gold salt injections to reduce inflammation and stiffness. Doctors today have mostly moved away from the practice because of side effects that include hampered antibody production. But other uses for the precious metal are still being discovered. Gold nanoparticle liposuction is being touted as “a new fat-melting procedure” that injects heated golden nanorods into fat calls. The cells burst and are then removed by needle. One 2018 study found that the technology, which is still undergoing clinical testing, “showed many advantages” to other systems and “may be promising in facilitating fat removal.”

Researchers are increasingly seeing broad potential for gold nanoparticles in a number of fields. In solar panels, star-shaped gold particles could improve energy storage by converting hydrogen more efficiently. In drug delivery, their unique properties mean they could serve as a nontoxic way to carry drugs to afflicted cells. Gold nanoparticles are being used to enhance medical imaging and diagnose a range of deadly diseases — which means the next gold rush may be on a much, much smaller scale.