Gold returns to the center of the board: what's happening with the dollar?

There's one sign that deserves attention amid all the talk about inflation, debt, and geopolitics: central banks are buying gold. And they've been doing so for several years.

The phenomenon gained momentum after 2022, when sanctions against Russia demonstrated that a country's financial reserves can also become a geopolitical tool. For some governments, holding a larger portion of their reserves in gold means possessing an asset that is not directly dependent on another state, a foreign currency, or a specific financial institution.

The European Central Bank itself identifies geopolitics and the risk of sanctions as important factors behind the increase in gold purchases. In 2025, central banks acquired around 850 tons , a lower figure than the more than 1,000 tons per year recorded between 2022 and 2024, but still extraordinarily high compared to historical levels.

The result is significant.

At the end of 2025, gold represented 27% of global official reserves at market prices , exceeding the 22% held by US Treasury bonds and the 15% held by the euro. The ECB, however, makes an important caveat: much of this change is explained by the extraordinary rise in the price of gold. If the price at the end of 2023 were used, Treasury bonds would still represent a larger proportion.

That changes the reading.

We are not facing the end of the dollar.

In fact, the dollar remains the dominant currency in the international financial system. It is present in 89.2% of all global foreign exchange transactions , according to the Bank for International Settlements' triennial survey for April 2025.

So, what's changing?

The answer might lie in the word diversification .

Countries aren't necessarily abandoning the dollar; they're seeking to reduce their dependence on a single asset. And in that process, gold is once again acting as a kind of insurance against scenarios they can't control: sanctions, conflicts, currency volatility, or changes in the international financial order.

There is another fact that makes the story even more interesting.

According to the ECB, Tether , the company behind the USDT stablecoin, bought more than 100 tons of gold during 2025. That is, a private company linked to the world of cryptocurrencies ended up buying more gold than many individual central banks.

This connects two worlds that until recently seemed separate: physical gold and digital finance.

And this is where the story ceases to be solely economic.

What central banks do ends up affecting the conditions in which we live: the value of currencies, the cost of credit, the price of assets, inflation, and even the way companies and governments manage their risks.

For Puerto Rico, where the economy uses the dollar as its currency, observing this movement is also a way to understand the economic environment in which we operate. It doesn't mean the dollar is disappearing or that gold is automatically a better investment. It means the global financial system is looking for new ways to protect itself in the face of an increasingly uncertain scenario.

The dollar still dominates.

But the gold is speaking.

And when central banks listen, it's worth paying attention.