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The picture shows the exterior of the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, D.C. Photo by Hu Yousong, Xinhua News Agency.
Data released recently by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that the total foreign exchange assets held by central banks worldwide increased by 6.5% in 2025, reaching USD 13.1 trillion, setting a historical record since the IMF began providing related data in 1995. However, the proportion of the US dollar in global foreign exchange reserves fell from 58.52% in 2024 to 56.77%, marking a historical low while remaining below 60% for 12 consecutive quarters. This is a decline of more than 15 percentage points compared to the peak reserve ratio of 72% in 2001. From 2020 to 2026, the share of the US dollar in global foreign exchange reserves is expected to decrease by nearly 14 percentage points, equivalent to a total reduction of about USD 3.2 trillion in assets held by central banks.
The main driving force behind this is the US government's own policies. After the US government introduced the so-called &#34;reciprocal tariffs&#34; in April 2025, the US capital market experienced a rare situation where stocks, bonds, and currencies all fell simultaneously. The US dollar index dropped by 9.4% throughout 2025, marking its worst performance in eight years, while the current US debt exceeds USD 38 trillion and continues to grow. Analysts believe that the unconventional economic and trade policies continuously implemented by the US government under &#34;America First,&#34; as well as the frequent financial sanctions imposed by the US and the West on other countries, have &#34;instrumentalized&#34; and &#34;weaponized&#34; the dollar system, leading to repeated erosion of the dollar's credibility and forcing countries to reassess the risks of excessive reliance on the dollar, thereby enhancing the global willingness for &#34;de-dollarization&#34; and accelerating its process.
From the perspective of reserve currency functionality alone, the status of the US dollar is undergoing an irreversible decline. However, in the fields of global trade payments and financing, the dollar's dominant position remains solid. Data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) shows that in December 2025, the US dollar accounted for 50.49% of global payments, far exceeding the euro's 21.9% and the pound's 6.73%, reaching a new high since 2023; approximately 56% of global trade is still settled in US dollars, and 60% of global offshore financing is dollar-denominated, indicating that &#34;de-dollarization&#34; is by no means a simple &#34;downward channel.&#34; Since March 2026, as the conflict between the US and Israel has intensified, the dollar has quickly rebounded as a safe-haven asset, with the dollar index breaking through the 100 mark again, indicating that the demand for the dollar as a safe haven still exists amid geopolitical crises.
However, the process of &#34;de-dollarization&#34; is multidimensional, with the institutional reshaping of the global payment system by BRICS countries being particularly noteworthy in recent years. As an important founding member of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) has developed rapidly, covering more than 190 countries and regions by the end of 2025, with a year-on-year processing volume growth of 42.6%, and the reliance of RMB cross-border transactions on SWIFT has decreased to 30%
In February 2026, CIPS completed a major upgrade, expanding its permissions from cross-border renminbi to offshore renminbi and cross-border payments in foreign currencies, and removing restrictions on financial institution access, taking a solid step towards a global multi-currency settlement platform. As the rotating chair of BRICS in 2026, India has proposed the establishment of a &#34;BRICS Digital Currency Interconnection&#34; system, utilizing blockchain technology to build a cross-border settlement network that directly connects the payment systems of BRICS countries, allowing for transactions in local currencies through a &#34;decentralized&#34; digital payment platform, making international payments faster and cheaper.
At the same time, the &#34;petrodollar&#34; system that has long supported the dominance of the dollar is showing signs of loosening. In June 2024, after the expiration of the 50-year petrodollar agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which was not renewed, Saudi Arabia began using multiple currencies such as renminbi, euros, and yen for oil trade settlements. In February 2025, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Brazil, China, and South Africa reached a memorandum of understanding to establish a cross-border settlement pilot mechanism based on a basket of commodities. Meanwhile, in March 2026, the proportion of renminbi settlements for oil from Saudi Arabia to China reached 41%, surpassing the dollar for the first time in a single month, and Saudi Aramco's renminbi settlement ratio for crude oil to China reached 45%; by early 2026, the proportion of renminbi settlements for oil and gas exports from Russia to China exceeded 90%. Shanghai crude oil futures have firmly established themselves as the third-largest crude oil futures market globally, forming an important price influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Furthermore, in the process of &#34;de-dollarization,&#34; gold has always played a unique and critical role. According to statistics from the World Gold Council (WGC), central banks around the world have net purchased an average of about 1,000 tons of gold annually over the past four years. In 2025, international gold prices rose by 65%, the largest annual increase since 1980. As of early April this year, the international spot gold price has increased by approximately 8.3% since the beginning of the year. In fact, since the first quarter of 2024, global official gold reserves have surpassed euro reserves, becoming the second-largest official reserve asset globally after the dollar. Subsequently, the proportion of gold reserves has continued to rise, reaching 28.9% by the third quarter of 2025. In the current context of geopolitical turmoil, financial market volatility, and uncertain economic prospects, gold has become the safest choice for central banks in diversifying their reserves as a tool to hedge against dollar risk and geopolitical risk, with many developing countries that have long been uninvolved in the gold market beginning to purchase large amounts of gold. In 2025, central banks net purchased 863 tons of gold, and by early 2026, the total global central bank gold reserves had exceeded 36,520 tons.
In summary, &#34;de-dollarization&#34; will be a structurally gradual process, but the trend of the international monetary system evolving from dollar unipolar dominance to a balanced multipolar direction is irreversible, promoting the diversification of reserve assets and strengthening local currency settlements

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According to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the total amount of foreign exchange assets held by global central banks is expected to grow by 6.5% in 2025, reaching a historic high of USD 13.1 trillion, while the proportion of the US dollar in foreign exchange reserves has dropped to 56.77%, a record low. Analysts believe that the policies of the US government have contributed to the erosion of the dollar's credibility, prompting countries to accelerate "de-dollarization." Although the dollar's status as a reserve currency is declining, it still maintains a dominant position in global trade payments and financing. In 2025, the dollar's share of global payments is expected to reach 50.49%, indicating that "de-dollarization" is not a simple process

- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported a 6.5% rise in central bank foreign exchange assets to $13.1 trillion in 2025, yet the dollar's share fell to a historic low of 56.77%.  
- The decline in the dollar's dominance is attributed to U.S. policies, including trade tariffs, leading to a loss of trust and prompting countries to reconsider reliance on the dollar, reflected by a significant reduction in dollar-denominated reserves.  
- Simultaneously, gold purchases by central banks surged, making gold the second-largest reserve asset globally, indicating a gradual shift towards a more diversified international monetary system.

The international monetary system is evolving towards balanced diversification