ECB Locks Gold at 27% of Reserves as Iran War Caps Near-Term Gains

On 2026-06-03 the ECB’s latest report confirmed gold as the world’s largest reserve asset at 27% of global official holdings versus 22% for US Treasuries at end-2025. The milestone followed a 60% gold price rally in 2025 that lifted central-bank stocks above 36,000 tonnes, outpacing Treasuries even as net purchases eased to 850 tonnes. Short-term momentum remains constrained by the Iran conflict’s support for oil prices, yields and the dollar, leaving bullion in a downward-biased range despite intact long-term buying from Poland, China, Turkey and Tether.