By the end of 2025, with central banks around the world continuing to increase their gold holdings and gold prices remaining at historically high levels, gold's share in global reserve assets will have surpassed that of US Treasury bonds.



A report released by the European Central Bank on June 2 showed that by the end of 2025, gold will account for 27% of global central bank reserve assets, a significant increase from 20% the previous year; the share of US Treasury bonds will fall from 25% to 22%, while the share of euro-denominated reserves will remain unchanged at 15%.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde wrote in a report: "Continued geopolitical tensions have fueled a surge in gold purchases by central banks around the world."

This shift in reserve structure reflects a global trend of de-dollarization and asset diversification among many countries, with the US dollar remaining the world's primary reserve currency. Following the US freeze on Russia's dollar reserves in 2022, countries accelerated their asset diversification efforts. Even with the increased proportion of gold holdings, dollar-denominated assets still hold a dominant position in global reserves at 42%.

This trend has profoundly impacted global financial markets and the international monetary system. Currently, global central bank gold reserves exceed 36,000 tons, approaching the levels seen during the Bretton Woods system, where currencies were pegged to the US dollar, and the dollar was convertible to gold.

Industry perspectives corroborate this.

The European Central Bank is not the first authoritative institution to conclude that gold reserves have surpassed US Treasury bond holdings. The World Gold Council disclosed as early as January this year that the market value of gold held by central banks worldwide is approaching $4 trillion, exceeding the approximately $3.9 trillion in US Treasury bond holdings. The last time the total value of gold reserves held by foreign institutions exceeded US Treasury bonds was in 1996.

The European Central Bank stated that China, Poland, Turkey, India, and other countries continue to make large-scale gold purchases, reshaping global reserve allocations; coupled with a sharp rise in gold prices, this has further increased the weight of gold in total reserve assets.

Central banks around the world, which had previously made net purchases of over 1,000 tons of gold annually for three consecutive years, slowed their pace of purchases in 2025, with net purchases totaling 850 tons for the year. The European Central Bank also noted that Turkey, after accumulating 220 tons of gold in 2022, sold and lent out 130 tons of gold in early 2026, setting a record for the largest reduction in central bank reserves in recent years.

The report also points out that the internationalization of the euro is accelerating: by 2025, the issuance of euro-denominated international bonds will surge by 30% to nearly 1 trillion euros (equivalent to 1.2 trillion US dollars); foreign investors will net increase their holdings of eurozone assets by 850 billion euros (equivalent to 990 billion US dollars) throughout the year, and the net inflow of euro asset portfolios will approach the historical peak.