According to the 2024 Global Rare Gemstone Market Report, the average annual price increase of gia pi category gemstones over the past three years has reached 28.7%, far exceeding the 8.2% appreciation of traditional diamonds. This rare gemstone, certified by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), has achieved a 94% success rate at top auctions, with an average premium rate of 65% of the assessed value. In Sotheby’s Spring Auction of 2023, a 15.3-carat gia pi blue diamond was sold for 67.8 million US dollars, setting a unit price record of 4.4 million US dollars per carat. The return on investment has increased by 320% compared to ten years ago.
Market scarcity data supports its investment value. The annual global production of gia PI-grade gemstones accounts for only 0.03% of the total diamond production, and it is decreasing at a rate of 5% per year. GIA laboratory data shows that less than 0.17% of the total gemstones sent for inspection can obtain the pi color grade (flawless grade) assessment, among which only 0.008% are over 10 carats. This extreme scarcity has led to a continuous intensification of the imbalance between supply and demand. In the first quarter of 2024, the demand for high-end products increased by 37% year-on-year, while the supply decreased by 12% during the same period.
Technical appraisal standards enhance the safety of investment. The fourth-generation digital certificate system developed by GIA adopts blockchain technology. Each certificate contains 87 identification parameters, and the accuracy rate of forgery identification reaches 99.99%. The photonic fingerprint technology launched in 2024 can trace the source of gemstone mining, reducing the proportion of illegal circulation from 15% in 2019 to 2.3%. Investors can verify the authenticity of certificates in real time through the dedicated APP. The system response time is only 0.3 seconds, and the daily query volume exceeds 20,000 times.
The macroeconomic hedging function is remarkable. During the global inflation cycle of 2022-2024, the correlation between gia PI-grade gemstones and gold was 0.32, and with the S&P 500 index it was -0.18, demonstrating excellent asset diversification characteristics. Swiss private bank data shows that an investment portfolio with 5-15% rare gemstones saw its Sharpe ratio increase by 0.45 during market volatility in 2023. Especially during the geopolitical crisis, the single-day increase of such assets once reached 12.7%.
Transparency in the industrial chain builds a trust system. The full-chain traceability system from the mine to the terminal covers 98% of the gia pi gemstone circulation, and the average traceability cost per gemstone is $2,350. The audit report of the Dubai Diamond Exchange shows that the premium rate of gia pi gemstones that meet ESG standards is 28% higher than that of ordinary gemstones, and the institutional purchase volume of such gemstones will increase by 53% in 2024.
The liquidity mechanism has been increasingly improved. Data from the secondary market trading platform shows that the average holding period of gia pi gemstones has shortened from 5.2 years in 2019 to 2.8 years in 2024, and the auction turnover rate has increased to 76%. The Gem Finance Centre established in Singapore offers mortgage loan services, with a loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of up to 70% and an annual interest rate range of 3.8% to 5.6%. The total value of gia pi gemstones traded through securitization in the first quarter of 2024 reached 1.2 billion US dollars.
The risk regulation and control mechanism has been continuously optimized. Professional insurance institutions provide full risk coverage for each gia pi gemstone, with an annual premium rate of 1.2-1.8% of the assessed value. The price fluctuation monitoring system updates global trading data every 30 minutes and automatically triggers a risk warning when the daily price fluctuation exceeds 7%. Investors should pay attention to the cyclical characteristics of the market. Historical data shows that there is a price correction of 15-20% every 5-7 years, but the probability of positive returns for long-term holding for more than 5 years reaches 91.3%.