The BRICS bloc is accelerating its push away from the US dollar, building gold reserves and settling a growing share of trade in local currencies, in a shift that members frame as protection against sanctions and currency risk.
Gold accumulation
BRICS countries hold over 6,000 tons of gold, roughly 20-21% of global central-bank gold reserves, and the bloc is associated with around half of global gold production through member states and partners. Holdings are concentrated among the largest members:
- Russia: about 2,335 tons.
- China: about 2,298 tons.
- India: about 880 tons.
- Brazil and South Africa: roughly 130 and 125 tons respectively.
Why gold
For BRICS members, gold serves as a hedge against sanctions risk and against reliance on partners they view as unreliable, while offering a tangible store of value recognized for millennia. The accumulation has accompanied broader efforts to reduce dollar dependence in reserves, trade and lending, and reflects a desire for assets that sit outside any single country's financial system.
Local-currency trade
Roughly 90% of trade between Russia and China is now conducted in rubles and yuan, largely bypassing the dollar, and local currencies increasingly dominate transactions across the Eurasian Economic Union. The New Development Bank, founded by BRICS, has targeted conducting 30% of its lending in member currencies by 2026, up from minimal levels a few years earlier, signaling an institutional push to match the rhetoric.
Limits and debate
Analysts remain divided on how far de-dollarization can go. The dollar still dominates global reserves, trade invoicing and financial markets, and building alternative settlement systems at scale is a long-term undertaking that requires deep, liquid markets and broad trust. Many transactions outside the bloc continue to default to the dollar for convenience and stability.
Global implications
A gradual diversification away from the dollar could, over time, affect demand for US assets and reshape reserve management worldwide. Central banks elsewhere are also adding gold, suggesting the trend extends beyond BRICS. For now, the shift is incremental rather than a wholesale displacement of the dollar's central role in the global financial system.
Obstacles to a common currency
Talk of a shared BRICS currency has circulated for years, but practical hurdles remain substantial. Members differ widely in economic structure, monetary policy and openness, making a single currency or unified settlement system difficult to design and govern. Building the financial plumbing, deep bond markets, trusted clearing systems and broad acceptance, takes time and political alignment that the bloc does not yet fully possess. As a result, diversification has so far proceeded through gold and bilateral local-currency arrangements rather than any unified alternative to the dollar.
Markets will watch reserve data, gold flows and settlement statistics for evidence of how quickly the BRICS strategy translates into structural change, and whether other economies follow a similar path of diversification. The trend bears watching as a gradual rebalancing rather than an abrupt break with the dollar-centered system.