The dollar isn't being dethroned, but select countries are hedging with gold.
| Gold as % of reserves | 2018 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| India | 5.5% | 16.2% |
| China | 2.4% | 8.5% |
| Poland | 4.5% | 28.2% |
| Turkey | 21.6% | 61.1% |
Under the table: the dollar's share of global reserves drifted down from 69.7% to 56.5% (2000-2025), rose to 57.2% in the first quarter of 2026 and eased to 56.7% in the second (IMF vintage read 2-Oct-2026).
The reading — and its limits
A hedge, not a replacement — the trigger was the 2022 freezing of ~$300bn of Russian reserves (dollar reserves held abroad can be seized; domestic gold cannot). The clearest evidence is the freeze itself: in the two quarters after it, the dollar's reserve share rose, the euro was flat, and the renminbi — already past its peak — kept falling. Nothing replaced the dollar; sovereigns bought gold instead. The share rise is partly buying and partly gold's price rise; for the active buyers the tonnage rise confirms real accumulation. China's reported holding is a likely-understated floor. And the buyers are not a bloc: Poland, a NATO and EU member, is the most deliberate accumulator of all.
Method Computed by us from IMF primary (SDMX API) — COFER for the dollar share, IRFCL gold-value/total-reserves per country, with tonnage from reported gold volume. India cross-validated against the RBI half-yearly report (880t). Held as nineteen series, quarterly for the currency shares and annual for the per-country gold.
Computed 2 October 2026