Touradji Capital Management LP, founded by Paul Touradji, sold 173,000 shares in the SPDR Gold Trust during the quarter, valued at about $24 million as of March 31, an SEC filing May 13 showed. Astenbeck Capital Management LLC, run by Andrew Hall, bought a stake in the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF valued at $32.5 million on March 31, a separate filing shows.

Soros Fund Management LLC held 4.72 million SPDR Gold Trust shares as of Dec. 31, equal to about 14 tons, an SEC filing Feb. 14 showed. Soros described gold in January last year as "the ultimate asset bubble." The fund sold some holdings because it no longer expects deflation, the Wall Street Journal said May 4. Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros, declined to comment.

John Paulson's Paulson & Co., based in New York, held 31.5 million shares in the SPDR Gold Trust on Dec. 31, making it the single biggest investor, an SEC filing in February showed.

The new filings from funds "may show that big names exited ETPs and this news may cause prices to slip in the very short term," said Bayram Dincer, an analyst at LGT Capital Management in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. Some funds switched to holding gold directly so they wouldn't have to announce it publicly, he said.

Sales Climb

It's not just the U.S. Mint that saw accelerating sales. Rand Refinery Ltd., which makes the Krugerrand, said May 13 that sales are heading for their best month since August. Demand for physical gold on May 6 was the strongest since early February, Standard Bank said in a report May 11. The U.S. Mint sold 62,000 ounces of American Eagles in the first week of May, as the S&P GSCI slumped 11%, the most since December 2008.

Those sales are "certainly reflective of a strong wave of demand for physical metal," said Ross Norman, chief executive officer of Sharps Pixley Ltd., a London-based bullion brokerage. "What drives people towards physical metal, as opposed to ETF or futures, is fundamental insecurity. It's like safe haven in extremis."

UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, had its second-best day this year for physical sales on May 9, according to a report the following day. The bank's sales to India, the world's top bullion consumer, are more than 10% higher than in 2010.

'Facing Challenges'

"There are more factors than at perhaps any other time in history that would suggest to investors they should own gold," said Michael Haynes, chief executive officer of American Precious Metals Exchange, an online bullion dealer that had its three best sales weeks ever in April and May. "We don't know if the euro is going to crack or stay and the dollar is facing challenges as the world's reserve currency."