Nearly 100 tonnes of Russian gold arrived in Hong Kong during the first seven months of the year.
That is roughly three times as much as during the same period in 2025.
But the bigger picture is even more interesting. Since 2022, Hong Kong entities have purchased approximately $35 billion worth of Russian gold.
Sanctions did not remove Russian gold from the global market.
They mainly changed its route.
Before 2022, London was one of the key hubs through which Russian metal entered the global bullion system. After sanctions, that channel largely closed and the gold found new routes.
Today, a growing share of that flow is moving through Hong Kong into Asia, particularly toward China.
The physical gold did not disappear. It is moving from West to East.
And this is not just about one country or one trade route. It fits into a broader shift we have been watching for several years: strong central-bank buying, the growing importance of Asian gold markets, and a greater preference for holding physical metal outside the traditional Western financial infrastructure.
Hong Kong is a natural gateway in that process.
The more gold moves into the hands of longer-term holders in Asia, the more the geographic distribution of the world’s physical gold changes.
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