Gold has overtaken US Treasuries as the world’s leading reserve asset, according to a new European Central Bankreport, marking a striking shift in the global financial order and a warning signal for the US dollar.
By the end of 2025, gold accounted for 27% of global central bank reserve assets, up sharply from 20% the previous year. U.S. Treasury bonds, long treated as the safest and most important reserve instrument in the world, fell from 25 % to 22%.
The change, while seemingly small, does not mean the dollar has been dethroned overnight or anytime soon, but it does show that central banks are increasingly hedging against a system dominated by American debt, American sanctions power, and Washington’s ability to weaponize access to dollar-based finance.
The United States, for decades, has benefited enormously from the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. That status allows America to borrow more cheaply, run larger deficits, finance military commitments abroad, and export some of the consequences of its monetary policy to the rest of the world.
The ECB’s findings suggest that more countries are quietly asking a question many American policymakers prefer to ignore: what happens if that privilege is no longer guaranteed?
Reserve assets are highly liquid holdings used by central banks to defend currencies, meet international payment obligations, and provide stability during financial crises. In practical terms, they are the emergency reserves of the global monetary system.
For generations, US Treasuries have sat at the center of that system. They were considered deep, liquid, dependable, and backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.
Gold, by contrast, was often treated by most Western financial elites as a relic. Yet central banks are now returning to it in force, driven by geopolitical uncertainty, inflation concerns, sanctions risk, and, among much of the Global South and states in the globe’s eastern hemisphere, growing distrust of the Western-dominated financial architecture.
ECB President Christine Lagarde acknowledged the trend directly in the report. “Geopolitical tensions continue to drive strong central bank demand for gold,” she wrote.
The shift accelerated after 2022, when the United States and its allies froze Russian foreign reserves following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. To America and the European Union, the move was a tool of pressure against Moscow; to many other governments, it was a reminder that dollar reserves can become vulnerable to political decisions.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
