Central banks around the world have continued their consistent gold buying streak for 16 years, with 2025’s total gold acquisitions reaching 863 tons. While annual purchases exceeded 1,000 tons in 2022, 2023, and 2024, the pace remains well above the previous decade’s average of 473 tons per year, pointing to a sustained appetite for gold that is getting stronger in 2026.
Gold’s growing role in global reserves
The main reason behind this rapid accumulation is a string of geopolitical and economic risks, with the 2022 reserves crisis standing out. That year, the G7, European Union, and Australia froze around $300 billion of the Russian Central Bank’s reserves, underlining the vulnerability of foreign currency reserves held in Western institutions. This event demonstrated to central banks worldwide that dollar- and euro-denominated reserves can be blocked by political decisions, making diversification an urgent priority.
Physical gold, when stored at home, emerges as a unique safe haven, free from the so-called “counterparty risk” faced by reserves held in foreign banks. According to the World Gold Council’s 2025 survey, most reserve managers expect global gold holdings to rise next year. An overwhelming 95% of respondents project higher global gold assets, with none predicting a decline. What’s more, 76% believe gold’s share in reserves will climb further over the next five years.
Record-breaking demand and soaring prices
Total worldwide gold demand surpassed 5,000 tons for the first time in 2025, pushing its value above $555 billion. The average gold price soared to a historic $3,431 per ounce, reaching new all-time highs 53 times throughout the year. By January 2026, the price had jumped past the $5,000 mark.
Poland’s Central Bank maintained its lead in gold buying for the second consecutive year, followed closely by Kazakhstan, Brazil, Turkey, China, and the Czech Republic. Turkey’s central bank conducted net purchases for 28 straight months. China’s central bank grew its official gold holdings 17 months in a row, hitting 2,306 tons. The World Gold Council estimates that central banks’ true gold purchases in 2025 may be 57% higher than official data suggests, indicating actual demand is much greater than what is publicly reported.
Physical gold stands out with a unique quality: domestically held gold is independent from foreign institutions, immune to political sanctions, and free from counterparty risk. In the 2025 survey, central bank reserve managers ranked crisis-period performance, diversification, inflation hedging, value preservation, and the absence of counterparty risk as the top criteria for their strong gold preference.
Tokenized gold unlocks new investment avenues
To overcome distribution bottlenecks and strains in global physical gold supply, blockchain solutions are gaining ground. Tokenized gold—digital tokens fully backed by audited physical gold—enables individual investors operating in the DeFi ecosystem to access a strategic asset historically limited to institutional players.
One standout digital asset: New Zealand-based issuer Techemynt’s GoldNZ. This product offers investors a legal framework under New Zealand’s common law, with each token representing one ounce of gold audited and stored in Commonwealth Vault facilities. Investors can transact GoldNZ tokens seamlessly on the Ethereum, Polygon, and Base platforms.
The tokenized gold market expanded by an impressive 360% in 2025. As the World Gold Council and Boston Consulting Group ramp up infrastructure efforts, products like GoldNZ combine traditional gold’s security with crypto’s flexibility, letting investors trade transparently on blockchain without needing to hold, store, or transport gold themselves.
Recent industry reports suggest that the total value of tokenized real-world assets could reach $18.9 trillion by 2033. Some firms, such as McKinsey, take a more cautious view, predicting a $2 trillion tokenization market by 2030. Yet all forecasts indicate the sector is primed for exponential growth, multiplying current levels many times over.
Techemynt also issues a stablecoin pegged to the New Zealand Dollar (NZDS) as well as silver-backed SilverNZ tokens. This allows investors to quickly move between gold, silver, and stablecoins within the same ecosystem. The company is registered as a Financial Service Provider in New Zealand and undergoes stringent regulatory audits.
