Without a doubt, the Chinese central bank (PBoC) is still the leading single entity that is driving up the gold price to record highs, year-to-date by more than 55 percent.In the third quarter of 2025, the PBoC’s gold purchases (reported and unreported) accounted for 118 tonnes, up 39% MoM and 55% YoY, according to my long-time methodology1 (now copied by Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, The Washington Post, TIME magazine, Financial Times, Financiele Dagblad, and El País, to name a few).
Seizing Russia’s reserve was the biggest mistake made by the US , next to overthrowing the government in Ukraine. It marked the beginning of the end of dollar hegemony which marks the end of US hegemony. The big question is whether the US will join a multi polar world or start a war to try to keep a unipolar one.
So Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1973 and we went to a fiat currency backed by nothing. The Petrodollar somewhat softened the blow. So now the BRICS nations want an alternative to the dollar backed by gold, how convenient. As J.C. Collins wrote about in his most excellent 10 part essay titled "SDR's and the New Bretton Woods" China hording gold was an expected move. The plan as described by Collins was to abolish the Federal Reserve and move the G8 into a basket of currencies at the IMF which would be backed by Gold and other precious metals and each country would get a piece of the pie determined by several factors and several metrics. What you are describing has been talked about before.
Seizing Russia’s reserve was the biggest mistake made by the US , next to overthrowing the government in Ukraine. It marked the beginning of the end of dollar hegemony which marks the end of US hegemony. The big question is whether the US will join a multi polar world or start a war to try to keep a unipolar one.
I think latter
So Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1973 and we went to a fiat currency backed by nothing. The Petrodollar somewhat softened the blow. So now the BRICS nations want an alternative to the dollar backed by gold, how convenient. As J.C. Collins wrote about in his most excellent 10 part essay titled "SDR's and the New Bretton Woods" China hording gold was an expected move. The plan as described by Collins was to abolish the Federal Reserve and move the G8 into a basket of currencies at the IMF which would be backed by Gold and other precious metals and each country would get a piece of the pie determined by several factors and several metrics. What you are describing has been talked about before.
So national currencies are turning into gold backed digital currencies?
No.
No, gold convertability is backstopping trade surplus currency.