Why has the Netherlands moved $10bn of its gold from the US?

The Netherlands has $83.7bn worth of gold in domestic and foreign reserves.

Gold bars are seen at the United States West Point Mint facility in West Point, New York [File: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]

The Netherlands has moved billions of dollars of its gold reserves out of the United States and Canada, and transferred them to the United Kingdom amid global geopolitical tensions.

On Wednesday, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) said it had moved the gold reserves to ensure it is “better prepared for severe crises”.

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While DNB did not specify which crises it might need to be prepared for, the US is currently engaged in a bitter trade tariff war with Canada, while Washington is conducting a war in Iran and has led operations in Venezuela and around Cuba in recent months.

Furthermore, tensions between Europe and the US have risen since the start of the US war on Iran in February this year, as Trump has made his displeasure at the reluctance of European allies to join the war known.

In a statement, DNB President Olaf Sleijpen said: “With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves. We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.”

How many gold reserves does the Netherlands have? What does this mean for the US?

Here’s what we know:

How much does the Netherlands have in gold reserves?

The Netherlands holds 612.4 tonnes of gold, valued at approximately 72.2 billion euros ($83.8bn), in gold reserves. These can serve as security in times of potential crises, where regular financial systems could fail.

As part of their standard risk diversification strategies, countries tend to spread their gold reserves around different locations to ensure the greatest security.

DNB spreads these gold reserves across different locations, including its own Cash Centre in Zeist, as well as in central banks in the UK, US and Canada.

Up until now, Zeist held 30.8 percent of the Netherlands’ gold reserves; London held 18.1 percent; New York, 31.3 percent; and Ottawa, 19.7 percent.

Following relocation of gold reserves from North America to the UK, the spread is now as follows: Zeist, 30.8 percent; London, 32.1 percent; New York, 18.5 percent; and Ottowa, 18.5 percent.

How has the gold been moved?

The relocated gold was valued at about 10.11 billion euros ($11.73bn) at the end of 2025. This was estimated at 10.34 billion euros as of 3pm (13:00 GMT) on Wednesday in the Netherlands.

It was moved in two ways: By selling gold in one location and buying it in another; and by physically transporting gold bars from one place to another.

According to DNB, the transfer of gold reserves began with the bank first selling about 59 tonnes of gold (worth about $8.3bn) in New York and then buying gold in London.

“More than 27 tonnes of gold (approximately $3.84bn) was also physically transferred from the United States and Canada to Zeist, and a similar quantity of gold that meets the international market standards was transferred from Zeist to London, preventing the need to remelt gold bars,” the bank said.

In all, about $10.7bn in gold has been moved from New York, while a little more than $1bn has been shifted from Ottawa, at the December 2025 valuations.

“Following the recent relocation, the geographical spread of the Dutch gold reserves is now more balanced, with both the United States and Canada each holding 18.5 percent,” DNB added.

Why did the Netherlands move this gold in this way?

According to DNB, the decision to move gold – and to do so in two ways – is part of its risk diversification strategy.

It stated: “Combining the processes of buying and selling and physical transport has allowed DNB to spread the risks associated with such a complex physical gold relocation operation, while also ensuring efficiency and cost-consciousness.

“Moreover, experience of both approaches will be useful in the event that another relocation is required during a potential future crisis, and one of the two approaches proves impossible due to circumstances at the time. This also fits in with DNB’s efforts to increase its crisis preparedness.”

Why might the Netherlands be moving gold away from the US?

In its press statement on Tuesday, DNB said it is seeking to ensure its gold is “easily tradeable” and highlighted that it considers London a safe place to keep it.

“Keeping a larger share of the gold reserves in London strengthens the function of gold as an anchor of trust. Gold is seen as the ultimate reserve asset because it is ideally suited to hedge extreme systemic risks,” DNB said.

“The gold reserves held in New York and Ottawa cannot be utilised as quickly and directly in such a situation,” the bank stated.

DNB has not explained what “systemic risks” it might be hedging against.

However, the Netherlands has removed far more gold from the US than it has from Canada, and analysts speculate there may be a number of reasons to fear instability in transatlantic relations.

Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Counter, a trading facility, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper: “The current political context in the United States might also push certain central banks into favouring other storage locations.”

First, Canada and the US have been locked in a trade war since 2025. The Trump administration hit Ottawa with tariffs on its key sectors of steel, aluminium and automobiles last year. Then, in August this year, Washington imposed an additional 50 percent tariff on $20bn of Canadian goods after trade talks between the two countries failed to yield an agreement.

In response, Ottawa unveiled retaliatory measures , levying tariffs against more than 700 US products, also valued at $20bn. These tariffs are tiered at 15, 25 and 50 percent, and are slated to come into effect on September 8.

Second, besides the various trade wars the Trump administration has been engaged in during President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, the US-Israel war on Iran is ongoing – with no diplomatic or military end in sight – and Washington has also ramped up military operations around Cuba .

In January, US forces abducted Venezuela’s then-President Nicolas Maduro in a lightning military operation and transported him to the US to stand trial on drugs-and-guns charges. Since then, the US has struck deals to take control of a large part of Venezuela’s oil industry.

Third, diplomatic relations between European countries and the Trump administration have become more strained both as a result of the US’s trade wars and Trump’s anger that European nations have refused to join the war against Iran.

Last year, tempers between the US and Europe flared when Trump reiterated his ambitions to acquire Greenland and threatened European countries that got in his way with more trade tariffs.

In April this year, Trump ranted at European countries, telling them to “go get your own oil” from the Gulf, where the war has caused the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggering oil and gas shortages and chaos in world energy markets.

“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran”, should buy US oil instead, Trump wrote on social media.

His comments followed news that France had barred Israeli planes from flying weapons through its airspace and Italy had refused permission for US bombers to land in Sicily. Spain refused permission for the US to use its bases and airspace for the war on Iran and, while the UK did allow the US to use its bases, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament that the UK would not get involved in the war. Trump responded that the UK-US “relationship is obviously not what it was”.

Fourth, when the European Union first froze approximately $300bn of Russian central bank sovereign assets in February 2022 just days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many saw this as a new precedent.

While central banks have long had the ability to freeze the assets of other nations, they have rarely done so – and not on this scale. The frozen assets represented around half of Russia’s total $640bn wealth. By targeting a G20 super economy, the EU broke with a long-held tradition that the reserves of a major nuclear and economic power were out of bounds, under standard international financial norms.

The EU went a step further in 2024 when it and G7 nations agreed to a mechanism to utilise profits generated by these frozen assets for a $50bn loan package for Ukraine. Then, in December 2025, the bloc agreed make the freezing of Russian sovereign assets indefinite, thus removing the need to vote every six months on extending the asset freeze.

As a result, countries may begin calculating that it is high-risk to hold reserves with the central banks of other countries where the government or leaders are considered unpredictable.

Have other countries moved gold from the US?

The Netherlands is not the first country to move its gold reserves from the US this year.

In January, Banque de France moved 129 tonnes of gold, worth about $17bn, which had been held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since July 2025, back to France, citing a technical upgrade and seeking a better return as the reasons. To do this, the bank sold gold in New York and bought gold bars in Paris.

Between 2013 and 2017, Germany moved more than 600 tonnes of gold (worth about $77.5bn) from New York to Frankfurt to secure its national reserves, it said.

荷兰的国内和国外黄金储备价值837亿美元。

在纽约州西点镇的美国西点造币厂，可以看到金条。[图片：Shannon Stapleton/路透社]

在全球地缘政治紧张局势下，荷兰已将其价值数十亿美元的黄金储备从美国和加拿大转移至英国。

周三，荷兰中央银行（DNB）表示，已转移黄金储备，以确保其“更好地应对严重危机”。

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虽然DNB没有具体说明它可能需要为哪些危机做好准备，但美国目前正与加拿大进行一场激烈的贸易关税战，而华盛顿正在伊朗发动战争，并在最近几个月里在委内瑞拉和古巴周边地区开展了军事行动。

此外，自今年2月美国对伊朗发动战争以来，欧美之间的紧张局势不断加剧，因为特朗普对欧洲盟友不愿加入战争表示不满。

荷兰中央银行行长奥拉夫·斯莱彭在一份声明中表示：“通过此次资产转移，我们提高了黄金储备的交易性。我们预计永远不需要动用这些储备，但我们确实需要增强自身的韧性和应对能力。”

荷兰有多少黄金储备？这对美国意味着什么？

我们目前掌握的情况如下：

荷兰的黄金储备有多少？

荷兰拥有612.4吨黄金储备，价值约722亿欧元（838亿美元）。这些黄金储备可以在潜在危机时期，当常规金融体系可能崩溃时，起到安全保障作用。

作为标准风险分散策略的一部分，各国倾向于将黄金储备分散在不同地点，以确保最大的安全性。

DNB 将这些黄金储备分散存放在不同的地方，包括其位于泽斯特的现金中心，以及英国、美国和加拿大的中央银行。

到目前为止，泽斯特持有荷兰 30.8% 的黄金储备；伦敦持有 18.1%；纽约持有 31.3%；渥太华持有 19.7%。

在将黄金储备从北美转移到英国之后，目前的价差如下：泽斯特，30.8%；伦敦，32.1%；纽约，18.5%；渥太华，18.5%。

黄金是如何转移的？

到 2025 年底，这批转移的黄金价值约为 101.1 亿欧元（117.3 亿美元）。截至周三下午 3 点（格林尼治标准时间 13:00），荷兰的估计值为 103.4 亿欧元。

黄金的转移有两种方式：一是在一个地方卖出黄金，在另一个地方买入；二是将金条从一处运到另一处。

据DNB称，黄金储备的转移始于该银行先在纽约出售约59吨黄金（价值约83亿美元），然后在伦敦购买黄金。

该银行表示：“超过 27 吨黄金（约 38.4 亿美元）已从美国和加拿大实物转移到泽斯特，同时，数量相近的符合国际市场标准的黄金也从泽斯特转移到伦敦，从而避免了重新熔化金条的需要。”

总计约有 107 亿美元的黄金从纽约转移出去，而从渥太华转移出去的黄金略多于 10 亿美元（按 2025 年 12 月的估值计算）。

荷兰中央银行补充道：“经过最近的重新分配，荷兰黄金储备的地域分布现在更加平衡，美国和加拿大各占18.5%。”

荷兰为什么要以这种方式转移这些黄金？

据DNB称，转移黄金——并且以两种方式进行转移——是其风险分散策略的一部分。

声明称：“将买卖和实物运输流程结合起来，使DNB能够分散与如此复杂的实物黄金搬迁操作相关的风险，同时确保效率和成本效益。

“此外，如果未来可能发生危机，需要再次搬迁，而其中一种方式由于当时的具体情况而无法实施，那么这两种方式的经验都将非常有用。这也符合DNB提高危机应对能力的努力。”

荷兰为何要将黄金从美国转移出去？

DNB在周二发布的新闻稿中表示，它正在努力确保其黄金“易于交易”，并强调它认为伦敦是存放黄金的安全之地。

荷兰中央银行表示：“将更大比例的黄金储备存放在伦敦，可以加强黄金作为信任锚的作用。黄金被视为终极储备资产，因为它非常适合对冲极端系统性风险。”

“在这种情况下，无法迅速直接地动用存放在纽约和渥太华的黄金储备，”该银行表示。

荷兰中央银行尚未解释其可能对冲的是哪些“系统性风险”。

然而，荷兰从美国提取的黄金比从加拿大提取的要多得多，分析人士推测，跨大西洋关系不稳定可能有很多原因。

总部位于巴黎的黄金交易机构“国家黄金交易中心”总裁洛朗·施瓦茨告诉英国《卫报》：“美国目前的政治环境也可能促使某些中央银行倾向于选择其他存储地点。”

首先，加拿大和美国自2025年以来一直陷入贸易战。去年，特朗普政府对加拿大钢铁、铝和汽车等关键行业的商品加征关税。今年8月，在两国贸易谈判未能达成协议后，华盛顿又对价值200亿美元的加拿大商品加征了50%的关税。

作为回应，渥太华公布了报复性措施，对700多种美国产品加征关税，这些产品的总价值也高达200亿美元。这些关税分15%、25%和50%三个等级，将于9月8日生效。

其次，除了特朗普政府在唐纳德·特朗普总统第二个白宫任期内参与的各种贸易战之外，美以对伊朗的战争仍在继续——目前看不到外交或军事上的结束——而且华盛顿还加强了在古巴周围的军事行动。

今年1月，美军发动闪电军事行动，绑架了时任委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗，并将其押送至美国，以毒品和枪支指控接受审判。此后，美国与委内瑞拉达成协议，控制了该国大部分石油产业。

第三，由于美国的贸易战以及特朗普对欧洲国家拒绝加入对伊朗的战争的愤怒，欧洲国家与特朗普政府之间的外交关系变得更加紧张。

去年，特朗普重申了他吞并格陵兰岛的野心，并威胁要对阻碍他的欧洲国家加征更多贸易关税，导致美国和欧洲之间的紧张关系升级。

今年 4 月，特朗普对欧洲国家大发雷霆，让他们“自己去海湾地区开采石油”。当时，战争导致霍尔木兹海峡关闭，引发了石油和天然气短缺，并造成世界能源市场混乱。

特朗普在社交媒体上写道：“所有那些因为霍尔木兹海峡而无法获得航空燃油的国家，比如拒绝参与剿灭伊朗行动的英国”，都应该转而购买美国石油。

此前有消息称，法国禁止以色列飞机在其领空飞行武器，意大利拒绝美国轰炸机在西西里岛降落。西班牙拒绝美国使用其基地和领空参与对伊朗的战争。虽然英国允许美国使用其基地，但时任首相基尔·斯塔默在议会表示，英国不会卷入这场战争。特朗普回应称，英美关系“显然已今非昔比”。

第四，2022 年 2 月，就在俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰几天后，欧盟首次冻结了俄罗斯中央银行约 3000 亿美元的主权资产，许多人认为这是一个新的先例。

尽管各国央行长期以来都有权冻结他国资产，但它们很少这样做——更遑论如此大规模的冻结。被冻结的资产约占俄罗斯6400亿美元总财富的一半。欧盟此举针对一个二十国集团超级经济体，打破了长期以来的惯例，即根据标准的国际金融准则，主要核大国和经济强国的储备不应被冻结。

2024年，欧盟与七国集团达成协议，将利用这些冻结资产产生的收益向乌克兰提供500亿美元的贷款，此举更进一步。随后，在2025年12月，欧盟同意无限期冻结俄罗斯主权资产，从而无需每六个月就延长资产冻结期限进行投票表决。

因此，各国可能会开始认为，在政府或领导人被认为不可预测的国家的中央银行持有外汇储备是高风险的。

其他国家是否也从美国转移了黄金？

荷兰并非今年第一个将黄金储备从美国转移出去的国家。

今年1月，法国央行将129吨黄金（价值约170亿美元）运回法国。这批黄金自2025年7月起一直存放在纽约联邦储备银行。法国央行给出的理由是技术升级和寻求更高回报。为此，该行在纽约出售了部分黄金，并在巴黎购入了金条。

报告称，2013 年至 2017 年间，德国将 600 多吨黄金（价值约 775 亿美元）从纽约运往法兰克福，以确保其国家储备。