China is quietly buying huge amounts of gold and reshaping the global money system, which is bad for the US dollar and could send gold much higher.

• China made its biggest gold purchase since 2023 last month and now holds gold near 10% of its reserves, buying while prices are low.
• China is banning retail gold trading at home starting July 24 to build a market based on real physical demand, not paper speculation.
• The plan: let countries sell oil for Chinese currency, then swap that for physical gold stored in Shanghai — a challenge to the dollar-and-oil system.
• The US keeps printing money and issuing debt fast, so the dollar loses value each year, pushing more central banks toward gold.
• The reheating Iran war means more US borrowing and higher oil prices, which could push inflation back toward 4% and speed up the move away from dollars.

Outlook: Expect central banks to keep stacking gold and China to keep buying, putting steady upward pressure on gold prices and downward pressure on the dollar.