The Netherlands is moving part of its gold closer to home.
At the same time, nearly 100 tonnes of Russian gold are flowing through Hong Kong, significantly more than a year ago.
Gold is no longer just about how much central banks are buying.
It is becoming increasingly important where the metal is physically held, under which jurisdiction, and how quickly it can be accessed in a crisis.
That is a major shift in how reserves are being viewed.
For decades, it made sense to keep a large share of gold in major financial centers, mainly because of liquidity and ease of trading.
Today, geopolitics is playing a much bigger role in that calculation.
Sanctions on Russia showed that access to reserves and financial infrastructure cannot always be taken for granted. Russian gold did not disappear from the market. Its flow was simply redirected through other hubs, especially toward Asia.
At the same time, we are seeing countries that want a larger share of their metal physically closer to home.
The bullion market is slowly reorganizing along geopolitical lines.
Western financial centers remain crucial, but their dominance may no longer be as automatic as it once was.
Hong Kong, China, and other Asian hubs are becoming more important, while some countries are also reassessing where they actually want their own reserves to be held.
For me, this is the most interesting part:
Not just who is buying gold.
But who physically controls it, and where it actually sits.
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