For the first time since the end of World War II, the dollar is no longer seen as the sole and undisputed foundation of the international economy. It is not yet a collapse.
But it is a gradual erosion of confidence that is spreading from the world’s largest economies to the central banks of emerging markets. And the evidence is now so extensive that it can hardly be considered a coincidence.
China is gradually abandoning US debt
The first and perhaps most worrying sign comes from China. According to the latest data from the US Treasury Department, China’s holdings of US government bonds fell in April to $651.1 billion from $652.3 billion in March. At first glance, the decline seems insignificant.
But the real news lies elsewhere. The current level is the lowest since September 2008, the time of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the biggest financial crisis in decades.
Ten years ago, China held more than $1.3 trillion worth of U.S. bonds. Today, that amount has almost halved. This reduction is not the result of panic. It is the result of strategy. Beijing is not selling aggressively. It is not causing market turmoil.
It is steadily and systematically reducing its dependence on the American financial system, preparing the ground for an era when the dollar may not be the sole reference point for international trade. This slow disengagement is perhaps more dangerous than a violent flight, because it reveals long-term planning.
The global reserve system is fragmenting
Overall, foreign holdings of US Treasuries still stand at $9.35 trillion. That is still huge. But behind the total is a profound change in behavior.
- Japan increased its reserves to $1.21 trillion.
- The United Kingdom increased its holdings to $937.5 billion.
- Canada reduced its holdings by more than $42 billion in one month, while
- Ireland also continued to reduce its exposure.
This picture reveals something deeper. There is no longer a common strategy. There is no longer a consensus on the safest way to manage foreign exchange reserves.
Each country is building its own defenses against an uncertain future. And when a global system stops operating on common assumptions, it begins to lose its coherence.
Gold returns to the spotlight for the first time in decades
The most striking element of the shift is gold’s explosive comeback.
The People’s Bank of China increased its gold reserves for the 19th consecutive month in June 2026. Chinese reserves now stand at 74.96 million ounces.
The fact that purchases continue despite historically high prices is particularly significant. Central banks don’t buy gold because they think it’s cheap. They buy it because they think it’s safe.
In 2024, central banks bought 863 tons of gold. Poland alone bought about 100 tons. Turkey, Kazakhstan, India, Brazil, and dozens of other countries followed. This is one of the largest waves of gold purchases in the history of the post-war period.
The historic reversal that worries the markets
The European Central Bank has recorded a development that would have been considered unthinkable a few years ago. The share of US government bonds in global reserves has fallen by four percentage points in just two years.
During the same period, the share of gold has increased by eleven percentage points. The result was historic. At the end of last year, gold now represented 27% of global official reserves, surpassing US bonds for the first time.
In other words, the world’s central banks trust an interest-free metal more than the debt of the world’s strongest economy. This is not a simple rebalancing. It is a historic vote of no confidence.
89% of central banks seek to acquire even more gold The latest survey by the World Gold Council is revealing. 89% of central banks expect further increases in global gold reserves over the next twelve months.
Even more impressive is that 84% believe that in five years’ time gold will account for a larger share of foreign exchange reserves than it does today.
At the same time, 74% of respondents believe that the dollar’s share of global reserves will decline over the next five years.
These numbers are not simply an investment forecast. They are a collective assessment of the custodians of the global monetary system themselves.
The new trend: gold repatriation
The crisis of confidence is not just about what central banks are buying. It’s also about where they’re storing it.
- 19% of central banks have changed their gold storage strategy in the past 12 months. That’s almost four times the number a year ago.
- France has removed 129 tonnes of gold from the Federal Reserve’s vaults in New York and now holds all of its reserves on French soil.
- India has reduced the proportion of its reserves held abroad from 55% in 2023 to just 22% in 2026.
- In Germany, political pressure is growing to bring back even more of its reserves from New York.
These are developments that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. The global economy is entering an era without an anchor. The most worrying thing is not that central banks are buying gold. It is that they are preparing for a world without a perfectly safe haven.
History shows that the transition periods between two monetary eras are usually the most dangerous.
But there is a slow, persistent and extremely worrying shift in global confidence. And as the world’s central banks begin to prepare for the possibility that the current system may not last forever, the real crisis has already begun — it is just not yet visible to most.
