The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) made its largest monthly gold purchase in nearly three years in July, adding approximately 640,000 troy ounces—roughly 20 tons—to its reserves. This marked the 21st consecutive month of gold accumulation, pushing the country’s total reserves to just over 76 million ounces, now worth more than $306 billion at current prices.
Data from The Kobeissi Letter indicates a clear acceleration: China bought only 160,000 ounces in March, 480,000 ounces in June, and then reached the July peak. Beijing has also been relocating gold from London to Hong Kong, supporting the city’s ambition to become a major precious metal hub with a new gold-clearing system.
Central banks worldwide are on a buying spree, with the World Gold Council reporting a record 289 tonnes of purchases in Q2—a 74% jump year-over-year. This institutional demand helped gold halt a sharp decline and rebound 8% over the past week to close at $4,342 per ounce, returning to a breakeven year-to-date level.
In stark contrast, China has tightened its cryptocurrency restrictions again, reaffirming the illegality of digital asset activities and extending scrutiny to stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. The so-called digital gold, Bitcoin, remains down over 25% YTD at $65,000, underscoring the divergent paths of the two assets.
