What makes this a milestone is that Hollywood’s famous gold bricks, which weigh over 27 pounds (400 troy ounces, to be exact), are now worth a million dollars each.

People love round numbers, especially big round numbers with six zeros. The number grabs the attention of the public, even though most people will never actually buy the object the prize represents.

Anyway, we have a new way to visualize a million dollars as a physical asset: these yachts, these houses, and now this gold bar.

While the format is iconic and influential (known in the industry as London Good Delivery Bars), private buyers often opt for smaller units such as kilos, 100 grams or one ounce.

More than the collectors snapping up bars and coins from Costco, gold experts told Business Insider that the real force pushing prices to new heights is central bankers around the world. The prospect of interest rate cuts — which are imminent in the U.S. — generally boosts gold because they reduce the relative appeal of other assets like Treasurys.

“I can tell you that FOMO has not yet penetrated the gold market, which you might expect given the $2,000-$2,500 rally,” Jonathan Da Silva, a trader at Kitco Metals, said in an email.

And despite gold’s popularity in the U.S., there is growing interest in physical gold among non-Western consumers, said Stephen Flood, president and co-founder of GoldCore, a precious metals services company headquartered in Ireland.

But experts tell Business Insider there is another side to this trend.

“Demand is increasing, but currencies are becoming less valuable,” Flood said.

Gold is considered a “safe haven” asset and the spot price for gold also rises when the real value of currencies including the US dollar, the British pound and the euro fall. In other words, the price of gold rising is another way of seeing the purchasing power of a dollar fall.

The value of a currency can fall for several reasons. The most important is inflation, but also geopolitical risks and the willingness of other countries to hold currency in reserve.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the dollar has fallen from over 70% of the world’s reserve currency in 2000 to less than 60% today, while gold reserves have risen sharply since the great financial crisis of 2008.

According to Jacob Diaz, CFO of Genesis Gold Group, owning physical gold is a way to protect wealth against currency devaluation without the risk associated with investing in other financial instruments.

“As long as the dollar can depreciate, gold can appreciate,” he added.

Six years ago, for a million dollars you could get two Good Delivery gold bars.

Meanwhile, the experts BI spoke to indicated that despite gold’s exceptionally strong performance this year, long-term investors are much more concerned with protecting their assets from downside risk.

According to Da Silva, wealthy buyers (who would buy a 400-troy ounce bar, for example) would rather get rid of fiat than get more of it.

“They may see gold as a way to preserve the value of their life’s work for future generations,” he added.