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The Dutch and French central banks have pulled a combined 215 tonnes of gold out of U.S. custody since mid-2025 — the Netherlands to London, France back to Paris — while Germany's much larger 1,236-tonne stake in the New York Fed hasn't moved.
- Gold now makes up 27% of global central-bank reserves versus 22% for U.S. Treasuries, according to the European Central Bank — even though no major European holder is shrinking its total reserves, only relocating them.
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The trigger traces back to 2022: freezing Russia's foreign reserves taught governments that assets parked abroad can be cut off overnight, and pressure is now building on Germany and Italy to follow the Dutch and French lead.
Gold reserves that sat quietly in American and Canadian vaults for the better part of a century are on the move. The Netherlands just wrapped up a five-month transfer to London. France emptied its share of the New York Federal Reserve's underground vault months before that. Germany, which holds more gold than any country besides the United States, faces mounting domestic pressure to do the same — even though it hasn't budged. The backdrop matters: this is unfolding under a second Trump administration marked by tariff disputes with allies, alongside a broader shift in which gold has overtaken U.S. Treasuries as central banks' preferred reserve asset for the first time in decades.
