The ECB was out with a report today on the international use of the euro but it contained some interesting details about who is buying gold and in what quantities.
First off, the data shows that official central bank gold purchases decreased to around 850 tonnes in
2025, down from over 1,000 tonnes annually between 2022 and 2024.
The lower tonnage is likely masked by two things:
1) That prices are higher, so even buying 850 tonnes instead of 1000, the dollar amount spent was more. That’s because the average price of gold was up 43% in 2025 compared to a year earlier. In 2024, the average price was $2386/oz and $3431/oz in 2026. Currently gold trades at $4516, up $33 today. In dollar terms, the purchases of gold in 2025 accelerated.
2) Secondly, these numbers show official buying. The elephant in the room — China — doesn’t disclose gold purchases, or at least not accurately. They might not be the only one as it’s increasingly en vogue to hide buying patterns and reserves, particularly for countries not friendly with the USA.
Officially, Poland emerged as the largest official sector
purchaser, acquiring around 100 tonnes, followed by Kazakhstan, Brazil,
China and Turkey.
The ECB also recently touched on why gold has struggled since the outbreak of the war in Iran. Worries about FX destabilization among major oil importers has led to central banks unloading gold in order to prop up currencies. The big one in this regard is Turkey, which unloaded 130 tonnes of gold — one of the world’s largest drawdowns in recent years — to defend its currency. That’s keeping the bulls sidelined until the conflict clears and it’s also one of the reasons gold will be a major beneficiary when the war ends, particularly if it’s with a peace that diminishes USD hegemony.
To me, the most interesting note is that Poland wasn’t the largest ‘official’ buyer as it was eclipsed by Tether, which is partly backing its stablecoin with gold and is also planning to launch a gold-backed stablecoin. The ECB data shows that they bought even more than thought last year — it had previously been reported at 70 tonnes
