Under the drive of a surge in prices over the past year and large-scale purchases by central banks around the world, gold is now fiercely competing with U.S. Treasuries for the top spot as the world's primary reserve asset.

According to the latest data, official U.S. overseas gold holdings total over 900 million troy ounces. These figures mainly reflect the situation around the end of November last year, with some countries' data slightly earlier. Converted at the gold price as of November 30, this gold reserve is valued at $3.82 trillion.

Meanwhile, the total value of U.S. Treasuries held by governments outside the U.S. is approximately $3.88 trillion. Assuming year-end prices and that central banks have not reduced their gold holdings, by the end of 2025, the valuation of non-U.S. central bank gold reserves could reach about $3.93 trillion—meaning the scale of gold reserves has officially surpassed U.S. debt holdings.

"Nobody trusts anyone's fiat currency anymore, so the appeal of gold and other precious metals has increased," a macro strategy analyst pointed out in a recent research report. He predicted that the value of countries' gold reserves is about to surpass their holdings of U.S. Treasuries. He also added, "When I started discussing this three months ago, the gap was still quite obvious. But now, based on actual estimates and current pricing, that gap no longer exists."

Considering that gold rose 66% last year, the trend of gold becoming the "reserve king" among global central banks is particularly evident. This reflects a reallocation by governments toward traditional safe-haven assets—shifting from paper assets back to physical precious metals—in the context of increasing global economic uncertainty.