Gold Surpasses US Treasuries to Become the World’s Leading Reserve Asset
Gold has officially overtaken US Treasuries as the world’s largest reserve asset, a seismic shift in the global financial order that few would have predicted just a few years ago. The development, confirmed in a report published on June 2, 2026 by the European Central Bank titled “The International Role of the Euro,” marks the first time since 1996 that gold has held this status.
Gold now accounts for 27% of global central bank reserves as of the end of 2025, up sharply from 20% just a year earlier, while US Treasuries fell from 25% to 22% over the same period. The euro’s share held steady at 15%. Dollar-denominated assets as a whole still make up the largest portion of global reserve assets at 42%, but US Treasuries, long considered the cornerstone of the global reserve system, have now been unseated by gold in a ranking that matters deeply to markets and policymakers alike.
The story behind the numbers is one of geopolitics as much as economics. The shift reflects a broad move by central banks to reduce dependence on the US dollar, a trend that accelerated sharply after Washington froze Russia’s dollar reserves following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That decision sent a clear signal to governments worldwide: dollar-denominated assets carry political risk. Gold, by contrast, cannot be frozen.
ECB President Christine Lagarde wrote directly in the report that “geopolitical tensions continue to drive strong central bank demand for gold,” connecting official gold buying to fears of sanctions exposure and a broader desire to hold assets outside dollar-controlled systems. Central banks in Poland, Kazakhstan, Brazil, China, and Turkey were among the most active buyers in 2025.
The gold-overtakes-US-Treasuries milestone was not driven by purchases alone. Gold prices rose approximately 60% in 2025, following a roughly 30% gain in 2024, pushing bullion to more than $5,500 per troy ounce in January, a surge that mechanically amplified gold’s share of reserve portfolios even as buying slowed slightly. The ECB itself acknowledges that if gold were valued at end-2023 prices, US Treasuries would still lead at 26% of reserves, with gold and the euro each at 16%.
Official-sector gold purchases reached about 850 tonnes in 2025, easing below the more than 1,000 tonnes bought annually from 2022 through 2024, while private investment demand nearly doubled to almost 2,200 tonnes and gold-backed ETFs drew a record $89 billion in inflows.
One of the more eyebrow-raising details in the ECB report is who ranked as the single largest gold buyer of 2025. Stablecoin issuer Tether acquired more than 100 tonnes of gold last year, placing a major crypto-linked company alongside state reserve managers as a significant force in the global bullion market.
The ECB is not the first institution to flag this tipping point. In January, the World Gold Council reported that the value of gold held by foreign central banks was approaching $4 trillion, already exceeding their roughly $3.9 trillion holdings of US Treasuries, the last time foreign institutions held more gold than US government bonds was in 1996.
What this means for the long-term structure of global finance remains an open debate. Gold pays no yield, requires physical storage, and its price is volatile, factors that limit how far the reallocation can realistically go. But the direction of travel is now impossible to ignore. The era of uncontested US Treasury dominance in central bank vaults appears, at minimum, to be under serious pressure.
