129 tons of gold arrive back in the country, Putin announces restrictions on gold exports

Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, gold has been decoupled from the U.S. dollar, and many countries have wanted to bring back the gold reserves stored in the United States. However, U.S. related authorities have always refused for a variety of reasons.

Yet, despite the U.S.’s obstruction in every possible way, France managed to bring 129 tons of gold back home through its own method. What kind of impact will this have on the United States and even on U.S. finance? Against the backdrop of global de-dollarization, how important is gold to a country?

A Silent Declaration of Financial Sovereignty

According to the latest report from U.S. media outlet Reuters, France returned its gold reserves stored with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to its home soil through a special method.

As early as in 2024, France conducted an audit of its central bank. After the audit was completed, the relevant departments recommended that the process for handling the overseas gold reserves be completed as soon as possible.

This batch of gold is about 129 tons, accounting for 5% of France’s total gold reserves.

After that, the French bank took action. After July 2025, through the U.S. Chicago Mercantile Exchange, it sold the gold reserves stored in the United States, citing the reason that it needed to sell the previously held gold reserves and re-buy new gold bars to carry out an upgrade.

Then, it would convert the proceeds obtained from the sale back into euros in France and, through onshore trading venues, purchase new gold bars for storage.

In about six months, France completed the plan, and the 129 tons of gold were brought back to the country in this way.

On the surface, France did not, like Germany or the Netherlands did in earlier years, directly demand “take delivery and bring it home,” which would very likely be delayed through “technical” means.

Instead, it used a “roundabout” approach: on the offshore market (New York), it sold the old gold bars that were stored there, while on the domestic market (Paris), it bought an equivalent quantity of new gold bars. In one go, the ownership of the gold and the physical substance were transferred quietly and without any fanfare.

In France’s national genetic makeup, there is always a particular fixation on gold. During the era of Charles de Gaulle, there was once an approach of “using warships to ship dollars to swap for gold,” directly challenging U.S. dollar hegemony.

As for the core countries of the euro area—fear of the weaponization of financial sanctions against the U.S. and the concern about the “long-arm jurisdiction” of the dollar—this is no secret anymore.

After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the “financial nuclear bomb” of freezing Russia’s foreign exchange reserves made everyone feel that the next target might well be themselves.

France’s return of these 129 tons of gold home is more like a silent declaration: the bottom line for financial security must be firmly in its own hands.

Besides France bringing its gold back home, Russia has also announced that, starting in May, gold bars of more than 100 grams will be banned from leaving the country.

This is a standard playbook under geopolitical tension: reduce the outflow of precious metals, consolidate foreign exchange reserves, and respond to Western sanctions.

Gold is not only a “shield” against fluctuations in the ruble; it is also the “spear” that supports building a brand-new domestic economic circulation and an external trade and commerce system.

For a country, against the backdrop of global de-dollarization, as long as there is a sufficiently large amount of gold domestically, it can withstand financial risks caused by the breakdown of the dollar and reduce reliance on Western financial and trade systems.

At home, massive gold reserves are the ultimate backstop for stabilizing confidence in the domestic currency—especially in the process of promoting domestic-currency settlement and de-dollarization, this kind of “tangible belief” is irreplaceable.

Externally, in large-scale commodity trade and the introduction of technology with some other countries that also want to bypass the dollar, gold can serve as the hardest form of “collateral” or a “payment instrument.”

Looking back at history, during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the United States, through the Gold Reserve Act, forced the public to surrender gold. One of the purposes was to strengthen the foundation of the dollar, in preparation for establishing dollar hegemony later on.

The actions taken by the U.S. and Russia—one is “taking,” the other is “guarding”—are both ways of telling the world that gold is very important to a country: with gold, there is confidence.

Today’s global monetary landscape is a mixed model of the “post-Bretton Woods” era: multiple sovereign currencies, regional currency blocs, and digital currencies are all emerging in competition. Behind them, as the final and physical value benchmark, gold’s presence becomes clear again.

Central banks in various countries, especially those in emerging economies, have added to their net gold holdings for years in a row. This is not following the crowd; it is a collective risk-avoidance instinct based on historical experience.

Author’s statement: personal views are provided for reference only