De Beers bets on blockchain as lab-grown diamond sales surge
▼ Summary
– De Beers is using blockchain via its Tracr platform to prove natural diamond origins, and the GIA has acquired a 30% stake in Tracr to give it industry-wide credibility.
– The diamond market is under severe pressure, with the IDEX Diamond Price Index dropping over 45% from a 2022 peak due to competition from cheaper, nearly identical lab-grown diamonds.
– Lab-grown diamonds in China sell for under one-tenth the price of natural stones, with production concentrated in Henan province, and they are rapidly gaining market share globally.
– A claim that lab-grown diamonds account for over 40% of global sales may be overstated; independent data puts the figure at roughly 21% in 2025, and the source of the 40% figure is unclear.
– Blockchain traceability aims to boost consumer confidence by verifying a diamond’s journey, but it does not reduce costs or make natural stones visually distinct from lab-grown ones, leaving the price premium up to consumer choice.
The natural diamond industry faces a challenge that no jeweler’s loupe can solve. In 2025, lab-grown diamonds are chemically, optically, and physically identical to mined stones, yet they sell for a fraction of the price. Their rise has been swift, and the market has taken notice.
De Beers Group, the dominant force in diamond mining and distribution, is placing its bet on blockchain technology to restore what geology alone can no longer guarantee: verifiable proof that a natural diamond is worth its premium.
GIA takes a stake in Tracr
In a landmark move announced in June 2026, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has agreed to acquire a 30% stake in Tracr, the blockchain provenance platform backed by De Beers. This acquisition is a major step toward making Tracr a trusted, independent infrastructure for the entire industry.
De Beers has been quietly building Tracr since 2018. To date, the platform has registered more than five million rough diamonds at their source, representing roughly two-thirds of De Beers’s rough diamond production by value. While blockchain-based provenance tracking is not new, applying it at this scale in the diamond trade is unprecedented.
“Consumers deserve to know where their diamonds come from and they should feel more confident in their understanding of each diamond’s source,” said Al Cook, CEO of De Beers, who joined the company in February 2023 after serving as an executive vice president at Norway’s Equinor.
A market under siege
The urgency behind Tracr’s expansion is driven by brutal market realities. The IDEX Diamond Price Index, a key global benchmark, peaked near 155 in 2022 and has since fallen sharply.
Year-on-year losses tell the story: 17.9% in 2023, 13.7% in 2024, and 10.9% in 2025. The source article reports a drop from 158 to 86 over that period, a decline of more than 45%. While the exact end-of-2025 figure could not be independently confirmed, the direction and approximate magnitude of the crash are not in dispute.
Lab-grown diamonds are the primary driver. In mainland Chinese stores, a 1-carat lab-grown diamond reportedly sells for around 3,500 yuan (US$518), less than one-tenth the price of a comparable natural stone. Production is heavily concentrated in China’s Henan province, which accounts for roughly 80% of the country’s lab-grown diamond output.
The 40% claim needs context
The source article, citing Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, states that lab-grown diamonds accounted for over 40% of global diamond jewellery sales last year, an eightfold increase from 2019. However, independent data from Statista pegs the global lab-grown market share at roughly 21% in 2025, a significant gap.
This discrepancy likely stems from differences in how “sales” are measured, whether by volume, number of pieces sold, or revenue. It may also reflect a China-specific figure rather than a global one. Readers should treat the 40% claim with caution until the underlying methodology is clarified.
Can blockchain justify the premium?
Lu Qi, an associate professor at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing), told the South China Morning Post that provenance tracking records each diamond’s origin, design, cutting, and polishing processes. Buyers can trace the entire journey, she said, which should boost consumer confidence.
Lu also noted that traceability may push up the cost of natural diamonds, an interesting dynamic in a market already hemorrhaging on price. The strategy aligns with Deloitte’s framework for viable blockchain use cases, which identifies supply chain transparency as one of the technology’s strongest enterprise applications.
A NielsenIQ survey conducted in China found that among 1,170 respondents, 95% planned to buy jewellery in the next 12 months and 70% preferred natural diamonds. Some 92% said they considered traceability highly important. This survey data could not be independently verified beyond the SCMP article and De Beers-associated press releases.
The bigger picture
De Beers’s blockchain bet is ultimately a branding exercise dressed in enterprise technology. Tracr does not make natural diamonds cheaper, nor does it make them visually distinguishable from lab-grown alternatives.
What it does is attach a verified story to every stone, turning provenance into a value proposition that blockchain is uniquely suited to deliver. Whether that story is worth a tenfold price premium is a question consumers will answer with their wallets. For De Beers, the hope is that enough of them still believe a diamond’s origin matters more than its atoms.
(Source: The Next Web)