The 10-year Treasury now pays about 5.3%. Central banks are adding gold anyway. On Monday, two senior European central bankers said why.
Central Banks Are Still Adding
Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and Bank of Italy deputy governor Sergio Nicoletti Altimari spoke at the London Bullion Market Association conference in Sorrento. Both kept gold in the core of their reserves.
Nagel pointed to geopolitical stress and the credit risk that comes with heavy government debt. Altimari called gold "probably the safe haven asset." He added that gold's old link to real yields has weakened significantly.
The buying matches the words. Poland has added 90 tons this year and holds 640, closing in on a 700-ton target. China has added for 21 straight months. The Czech Republic has added gold to its reserves for 41 consecutive months.
In the World Gold Council's 2026 survey, 89% of central banks expect global gold reserves to rise. A record 45% expect their own to rise, which says something important.
The World Gold Council says softer prices likely helped lift central bank buying in the second quarter. Official buyers added 289 tons, a record for a second quarter and five times the quarter before.
Nagel pointed to geopolitical stress and the credit risk that comes with heavy government debt. Altimari called gold "probably the safe haven asset." He added that gold's old link to real yields has weakened significantly.
The buying matches the words. Poland has added 90 tons this year and holds 640, closing in on a 700-ton target. China has added for 21 straight months. The Czech Republic has added gold to its reserves for 41 consecutive months.
In the World Gold Council's 2026 survey, 89% of central banks expect global gold reserves to rise. A record 45% expect their own to rise, which says something important.
Gold has pulled back from its high. For a long-term holder, that's an opening, not a knock against the futures of precious metals.
The World Gold Council says softer prices likely helped lift central bank buying in the second quarter. Official buyers added 289 tons, a record for a second quarter and five times the quarter before.
They're Buying Protection, Not Yield
Here's the thing. Reserve managers aren't chasing spot prices or trends. They're building protection.
A central bank's reserves are a nation's savings. Yours are your family’s lasting wealth. The question is the same. What protects the savings, whatever comes next?
Central banks learned in 2022 that reserves held in someone else's custody can be frozen – a bar in your own vault answers to no one except you.
That's the part yield can't price. A coupon measures what a bond pays. It can't measure what a bar protects.
Metals Focus expects roughly 720 tons of official buying this year. That's above where it stood before 2022.
A central bank's reserves are a nation's savings. Yours are your family’s lasting wealth. The question is the same. What protects the savings, whatever comes next?
Gold works the same way inside a reserve. Bonds do the earning. Gold does the protecting. Nagel put it as diversification: gold alongside bonds, not instead of them.
Central banks learned in 2022 that reserves held in someone else's custody can be frozen – a bar in your own vault answers to no one except you.
That's the part yield can't price. A coupon measures what a bond pays. It can't measure what a bar protects.
Metals Focus expects roughly 720 tons of official buying this year. That's above where it stood before 2022.
What Britain's 395 Tons Is Worth Now
Governments have weighed this choice before. In 1999, the UK Treasury announced it would sell about half the nation's gold. The stated aim was to move into assets that pay interest.
Over 17 auctions, it sold 395 tons at about $275 an ounce. That raised roughly $3.5 billion. Traders still call it Brown's Bottom, after the chancellor who ordered it.
At the September 30th's price, those same ounces are worth about $52.8 billion. That's 15 times what Britain got.
The yield argument wasn't wrong about the yield. It was wrong about what mattered.
Over 17 auctions, it sold 395 tons at about $275 an ounce. That raised roughly $3.5 billion. Traders still call it Brown's Bottom, after the chancellor who ordered it.
At the September 30th's price, those same ounces are worth about $52.8 billion. That's 15 times what Britain got.
The yield argument wasn't wrong about the yield. It was wrong about what mattered.
Buy It the Way They Do
A Roman gold aureus is still worth its weight in gold. The empire that struck it is gone, but it will always carry its weight in metal. Regardless of demand for the rare coin, it will carry value for a millennium.
Copy the habit. Own it physically, allocated, delivered, in your own name.
A 5% coupon tells you what a bond pays this year. It says nothing about what a physical asset could be worth in twenty years.
Central banks are building for the twenty.
The lesson for an individual isn't the tonnage. It's the habit. Central banks add steadily, year after year.
Copy the habit. Own it physically, allocated, delivered, in your own name.
A 5% coupon tells you what a bond pays this year. It says nothing about what a physical asset could be worth in twenty years.
Central banks are building for the twenty.
— U.S. Gold Bureau Team
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byUnited States Gold Bureau