{"id":37699,"date":"2025-07-04T09:23:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/37699\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T09:23:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:23:29","slug":"this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/37699\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 With Florida officially recognizing gold and silver as legal tender, many are left wondering\u2014what does this mean for investors? On this episode of This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition<\/b><\/a>, Luciano Duque of C3 Bullion helps us unpack that question. Duque, a financial expert with deep experience in international portfolio construction, offers unique insight into gold\u2019s evolving role in the financial system\u2014and a new model for investing in it.<\/p>\n

Gold\u2019s Traditional Role\u2014and Its Challenges<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMy background is in finance. I\u2019ve been in finance for several years, building portfolios for clients, mostly international clients,\u201d Duque explains. \u201cAs time passed by, I always put, like, gold in a portfolio. You know, gold is always a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duque notes, however, that gold has its limitations. \u201cThe problem with gold is that gold has no income unless gold goes up. So… just gold sits there,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea of having gold in a portfolio always makes sense. But always people say, \u2018Yeah, but not doing much.\u2019 You know, \u2018Where\u2019s the income from it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS EPISODE: <\/b>City Council president reflects on public safety wins during his year<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Why Gold Prices Are Soaring<\/b><\/p>\n

Since September 2022, gold prices have more than doubled\u2014from about $1,600 to $3,300. According to Duque, \u201cUsually gold behave, inverted to a stock market, right? Stock market goes down, gold goes up… Now when you start having, uncertainty in the markets, that\u2019s when Gold start to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the biggest driver may be structural: \u201cSomething very interesting happened… with something called Basel III,\u201d Duque says. \u201cWhat happened a few years ago was that gold was turned into what\u2019s called a tier one asset… So what happened was that now banks realized I\u2019d need a goal. And as part of their assets, like the physical gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

That regulatory change prompted massive institutional demand. \u201cCentral banks broke every record of gold purchase, and they were not buying paper gold. We\u2019re actually buying physical gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold as Legal Tender in Florida<\/b><\/p>\n

Governor Ron DeSantis\u2019s decision to declare gold legal tender in Florida has raised plenty of eyebrows\u2014and questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of us are like, is I\u2019m like 19th century and I got a, you know, a piece of gold. And I\u2019m looking at the bartender. What\u2019s what does that look like?\u201d Duque says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Still, there could be implications for taxation. \u201cUsually when you get gold, you hold gold… you don\u2019t pay taxes on the increase in the price of gold unless you sell it,\u201d Duque explains. \u201cSo you have a taxable event when you actually sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what if someone used gold to buy a house? \u201cHas he created a taxable event when he gave that bar of gold to buy a house or not? I don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s a very interesting question.\u201d<\/p>\n

C3 Bullion\u2019s Innovative Gold Lending Model<\/b><\/p>\n

Duque\u2019s company, C3 Bullion, aims to make investing in gold more dynamic. \u201cWe are a mining advisory firm… what we do is work also with investors. So the investors want to get a piece of the action that happens in the mine without actually owning the mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works: C3 lends capital to smaller, already-producing gold mines. In return, those mines repay the loans in physical gold\u2014at a discount. \u201cWe lend to the gold mines. We act as a mortgage… and when the mines start paying back, they have to pay back with physical gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

For investors, this means potential returns in actual gold. \u201cWe literally send gold to investors,\u201d Duque says. \u201cWhat happens is the money is paid back in full, with gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

De-Risking Mining Investment<\/b><\/p>\n

C3 also brings mining know-how. \u201cWe have in our team five of those\u201d Qualified Persons, or QPs, Duque says. \u201cSo we don\u2019t go into a mine where we don\u2019t know there is something on the road… we are not getting into exploration at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond due diligence, C3 provides hands-on operational support. \u201cWe are literally going like boots on the ground and actually helping the mine increase production.\u201d<\/p>\n

This minimizes the risk for investors and creates a win-win: \u201cWe don\u2019t want ownership of your mine… we go in temporarily\u2014only five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

A New Way to Add Gold to Portfolios<\/b><\/p>\n

Duque says the goal is to give everyday investors better access to gold\u2014with some income potential. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to go into investing in gold thinking this is the one that is going to produce to me like 75% return… gold goes into the bottom of that risk part of the safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recommends a classic allocation strategy: \u201cI always suggest any sort of a traditional putting two and a half to 5%… of your portfolio in some exposure of gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through C3\u2019s SEC-qualified Regulation A Tier 2 offering, even smaller investors can get involved. \u201cWe went live on May 28th… the minimum size investment is 500 bucks,\u201d Duque says. \u201cWe are creating this management company to actually drive a new investor in gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

With legal and market shifts surrounding gold, and a unique lending model bridging mining and finance, Duque sees a golden opportunity for conservative investors looking to diversify.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething is going on with the gold,\u201d he says. \u201cCentral bankers are buying… States are now using it as a legal tender… we think that is going to happen. A lot more things with gold in the future than what\u2019s going on right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 With Florida officially recognizing gold and silver as legal tender, many are left wondering\u2014what does…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,16212,3188,723,7310,16211,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-37699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business-edition","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-this-week-in-jacksonville","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114794240685248750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}