Seems that even France wasn't confident they'd get their gold back. What they actually did was sell the gold in the fed and bought new gold in Europe.

[–] davel@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Banque de France sold 129 tonnes of gold between July 2025 and January 2026, about 5 percent of its total reserves, which had been held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Rather than refining and transporting the old stock, the bank purchased an equivalent amount of new, compliant gold in Europe, which now sits in Paris alongside the rest of France’s reserves.

The overall size of France’s gold reserve, around 2,437 tons, remains the same.

The upgrade involved replacing older, non-standard gold bars with modern ones that meet international rules for weight, purity, and certification, making them easier to trade globally.

So the gold—if it exists at all—wasn’t moved, but instead the Federal Reserve printed an equivalent amount of USD which France then spent on actually-existing gold in Europe?

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

Yup, which is really the only sensible way to divest from the US. They just sold off whatever they supposedly had in US vaults, and will buy gold they can get their hands on.

[–] sicilian@lemmychan.org 0 points 4 days ago

Smart. The entire world should be divesting from the US.