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Imagine waking up to headlines that gold has been revalued overnight—and that the world’s leading superpower is sitting on far more gold than anyone realized. In a fascinating conversation with Financial Sense's Jim Puplava, author and commentator Dominic Frisby pulled back the curtain on gold’s shifting role in the global economy, the mysterious case of China’s gold accumulation, and what a dramatic revaluation could mean for everyone’s wealth.

Why Talk About Gold Revaluation Now?

Gold has been quietly defying the playbook. For three years running, it’s posted double-digit gains—even as the dollar and interest rates have risen, a scenario that historically would have spelled trouble for bullion. “What's been driving this bull market is central bank buying,” Frisby observes. “And the biggest buyer of all, without a shadow of a doubt, is China.”

But this isn’t just about price moves. A growing chorus of analysts—and more than a few rumors—suggests a coming “revaluation” of gold. That is, a formal, possibly government-driven resetting of gold’s value relative to major currencies. Why would this happen? And what does China have to do with it?

China’s Secret Gold Hoard: More Than Meets the Eye

Officially, China claims to hold just over 2,200 tons of gold—about a quarter of the US stash. But Frisby is deeply skeptical of those numbers. “Every month China announces a slight increase—10, 20, 50 tons—to its gold holdings. I think what the People's Bank of China is doing is understating its gold reserves to the bare minimum that's believable,” he argues.

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Frisby runs the math:

• China is the world’s largest gold miner, producing roughly 8,000 tons this century.
• The Shanghai Gold Exchange has seen 23,000–24,000 tons flow through its vaults—mostly staying in the country.
• China is also the world’s top gold importer.
• And state entities beyond the central bank—like the military or sovereign wealth funds—can accumulate gold without public disclosure.

His conclusion? “China has at least four times the amount of gold that it says it does. And I would argue that China actually has more gold than the US.” By his conservative estimate, “at least 9,000 tons,” and possibly as much as 15,000 tons, could be in Chinese state hands—enough to fundamentally shift the balance of global monetary power.

Why Is China Buying So Much Gold?

So what’s China’s endgame? Frisby sees two intertwined motives:

1. Hedging Against Dollar Risk: After the US froze Russia’s reserves in 2022, “China looked at what happened… and just thought to themselves, you know, we're in America's power here and we need to diversify. And the obvious way to diversify is to own gold.”
2. Preparing for a Bigger Role: “Every great, the world's foremost power has usually had the world's foremost money,” Frisby notes. He speculates that China may want to position the yuan as a future global reserve currency. “There has never been a global reserve currency that did not start out backed by gold. That's how it attained that status.”

If China ever revealed it had surpassed the US in gold holdings, Frisby warns, “it would cause a plummet in the dollar, it would cause panic in financial markets, it would cause a spike in the gold price, it would devalue China's $3 trillion of [dollar] holdings. It would just cause too much upheaval.” For now, he says, “China’s motto is 'we must not shine too brightly.' But it has that card to play if China and the US ever get into any kind of conflict.”

Could the US Revalue Its Gold? A Wild Card for the Future

Rumors swirl about a possible US gold revaluation—especially if fiscal pressures mount. “There was this big rumor going around… they were going to audit the Fort Knox gold and then revalue it up to current prices, and that was the way they were going to remonetize the US by the revaluation of its gold holdings,” Frisby recounts. While officials have downplayed the idea, he notes that the temptation could grow as debt and deficits balloon. “They'll do it when they think there's the time to do it and they don't want speculation prior to that.”

But revaluing gold isn’t as simple as updating a price tag. Frisby points out that much of the US gold reserve may not even be of “good delivery” quality by today’s standards—it’s possible that a significant portion is old, low-purity bars from the 1930s confiscations. “If America had re-smelted all its gold, it would have audited it. I can't believe that it wouldn't have done that,” he muses, hinting at the murky reality behind the official numbers.

The Stakes: What If the World’s Money Is About to Change?

If China is sitting on a mountain of hidden gold (and the US gold stash is less than advertised), the stage is set for a dramatic shift in global monetary power. “I think this is actually probably the biggest story in global finance—although of course it doesn't get reported on anywhere—that China has more gold than the US,” Frisby says.

A surprise revaluation—by the US, China, or both—could spark a new era where gold, once again, anchors the value of money. It would upend assumptions about the dollar, the yuan, and the very meaning of financial security.

Are You Ready for a Gold Reset?

As global financial markets contend with mounting sovereign debt and persistent questions about the sustainability of fiat currencies, the potential for significant systemic shifts is rising. The prospect of a gold revaluation—or a disclosure of substantially larger Chinese gold reserves than officially reported—could have profound and immediate implications for asset prices, capital flows, and monetary policy frameworks.

Both Frisby and Puplava emphasize that structural pressures on the international monetary system are accelerating. Governments across advanced and emerging economies are running elevated deficits, while inflation continues to erode real purchasing power. In the United States, for example, interest payments now consume more than 20% of federal revenues—a dynamic mirrored, and in some cases exceeded, in Europe and other developed markets. These imbalances heighten the likelihood that policymakers may eventually resort to extraordinary measures, including some form of monetary reset.

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