jpollock3 hours ago
I wonder how much of that are foreign central banks moving their gold reserves out of the USA... France, The Netherlands and Germany have been moving gold.
morsch2 hours ago
France completely exited New York, the Netherlands roughly halved what they've stored there. That was in 2026. They didn't physically ship any of it, they sold it and rebought in Europe.
Germany moved 111t from New York in 2016, and, afaict, nothing since then. There's still 1236t left.
Italy also keeps over 1000t in New York (no plans for repatriation).
JumpCrisscross2 hours ago
> They didn't physically ship any of it, they sold it and rebought in Europe
This is effectively outsourcing that process to the banks.
minraws2 hours ago
Banks can keep it in US and stay happy, they don't necessarily immediately need physical gold. So it's quite efficient, lots of govts do similar stuff.
JumpCrisscross2 hours ago
> Banks can keep it in US and stay happy
If the Banque de France holds physical in New York and sells it to JPMorgan (nothing moves) and then in Paris buys contract for physical from UBS, there will probably need to be physical gold that moves.
In all likelihood, Swiss gold held by e.g. a Gulf customer might be sold to Paris (nothing moves) and JPMorgan may entice Venezuela to take those contracts on its balance sheet (nothing moves). But if it’s a big trade, the price of delivering physical in Paris (or Genève) will go above spot in New York at which point it’s profitable for JPMorgan to take delivery, load up planes and physically ship gold.
Gravityloss2 hours ago
I imagine a convoy of small but heavily armored ships leaving New York, with nervous sailors clutching machine guns on the decks.
JumpCrisscross2 hours ago
> I imagine a convoy of small but heavily armored ships
It’s typically flown [1].
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
curmudgeon222 minutes ago
Not that that stops heist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Pearson_International_...
m-i-lan hour ago
And in the past it has been shipped in boxes labelled "fish"[0].
JumpCrisscrossan hour ago
Alas, goldfish wouldn’t be invented until 1962 [1].
tarsierscripteran hour ago
The Yapese people have been doing the same thing [1] for centuries.
jandrewrogersan hour ago
The article is about the export of mined gold. The US produces ~160 tons of gold annually from domestic mining operations.
iamnothereop2 hours ago
It’s specifically nonmonetary gold, so that’s a separate issue unless those nations were holding non-reserve gold here.
Although a sibling commenter mentioned that they moved their gold by selling it and rebuying it in Europe. If that gold qualifies as non-reserve gold after sale, and is moved out after sale to (for example) China, then perhaps?
mqus2 hours ago
From the article: > The U.S. government is still reporting that its gold reserves are unchanged, so these exports look to be coming from current mine output and recycling operations.
Not sure if "The U.S governments gold reserves" also includes the ones from other countries though.
exe342 hours ago
[flagged]
simonh2 hours ago
So that’s why Florida is sinking into the ocean.
progval3 hours ago
Do they count as export if the owner doesn't change?
codethief2 hours ago
If central banks sell their gold in the US and buy new gold abroad (to save themselves physically transporting the gold across the ocean[0]), I suspect that the demand this creates for gold abroad will ultimately cause US gold exports to rise, too.
[0]: See the link in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134172
rkagereran hour ago
That's what I thought too but the article says it's mostly fresh mine output (and recycled).
csomar2 hours ago
I don't think that counts as exports although they could be selling in the US and buying locally where traders move the gold (then it will be counted as exports).
dyauspitr2 hours ago
Probably all of it.
samudrijan3 hours ago
So not actually productive exports. Just draining the coffers as the criminals in charge loot the commons.
JumpCrisscrossan hour ago
> majority of gold exports are going to Switzerland, almost certainly to the refiners there
Sounds like a refining bottleneck.
Globally, “refining capacity is operating at near-total utilization” [1]. That is particularly true in America, where refiners are “limiting purchases” [2] and “turning away new clients” [3].
Global demand for gold—lead by China—is surging. That, in turn, made gold “the most-developed commodity over 2020-25” with “the highest [new] mine count each year during the period” [4].
Where are those mines opening? In “Australia, Canada and the US,” which “accounted for the largest share of new gold production.”
[1] https://www.skillings.net/gold-refining-report-global-standa...
[2] https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/metal-refiners-t...
[3] https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/refining-pipelin...
[4] https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insight...
jfengel42 minutes ago
Huh. I'd have thought that capacity would rise with ore supply. It is "free money". Why leave it in the ground?
Sounds as if there is a point at which digging and refining is more expensive than buyers are willing to pay, so when demand goes up it takes time to expand supply.
WJW14 minutes ago
Refining takes big machines and a lot of energy. It's pretty much the opposite of free money, you need to invest a lot to unlock the revenue stream.
asphodele37 minutes ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestake_Mine_(South_Dakota)
"The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine (8,000 feet or 2,438 m) located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002, it was the largest and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. The mine produced more than forty million troy ounces (43,900,000 oz; 1,240,000 kg) of gold during its lifetime. This is about 2,500 cubic feet (71 m3) or a volume of gold roughly equal to 18,677 US gallons.
...
In 1876, settlers Fred and Moses Manuel, Alex Engh, and Hank Harney discovered the Homestake deposit during the Black Hills Gold Rush. The Black Hills had been guaranteed to the Lakota Nation by the Fort Laramie Treaty, but the land was stolen for its gold."
When the illegal miners moved in on the Black Hills, Crazy Horse would on occasion raid them to sieze their gold, after which he would re-bury it.
PowerElectronix16 minutes ago
Speaks volumes of the results the policies to make the US a manufacturing and exporting country are getting.
XCSme3 hours ago
I thought it was tokens
JumpCrisscrossan hour ago
I think those count as services. Gold is the most-exported good.
XCSme43 minutes ago
Title doesn't mention good specifically.
How are service exports counted? All together? Or not considered exports?
JumpCrisscross8 minutes ago
> Title doesn't mention good specifically
Literally the link in the first paragraph: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IEAXGG.
It’s conventional, in American English, for exports unadorned to mean just goods. It’s anachronistic. But it isn’t wrong.
Aachenan hour ago
Would have thought advertising and transaction fees myself, but the article says it's usually oil (ok I should have thought of that), "pharmaceuticals" (mkay, seems cheaper to make elsewhere so that's a bit strange), or aircraft and their parts (wut? How many aircraft can the world need that it commonly tops the export chart of the wealthiest country?!)
graemep22 minutes ago
Because in-patent pharmaceuticals are a LOT more expensive than out of patent ones their monetary value is far greater than the greater volume of out of patent pharmaceuticals. If you look at where big pharma makes its revenues and their sales relative to generics sellers you can see this. Because of that the cost of making them is not really that important.
As for aircraft, not that many in number, but very expensive things with very expensive parts.
cpgxiiian hour ago
> How many aircraft can the world need that it commonly tops the export chart of the wealthiest country?
Airliners and military aircraft are expensive. Consider that nearly the entire aircraft production capacity of Boeing and Lockheed-Martin as well as the engine production capacity of GE and P&W are booked for years to come. Also, unlike Airbus which has multiple final assembly plants across the world, Boeing only does final assembly in the US.
JumpCrisscrossan hour ago
Goods versus services. We tend to use the word “exports” to refer to only the former in America, which is anachronistic.
XCSmean hour ago
I mean, wouldn't that make sense given the market caps?
So many trillion-dollar valued AI-focused companies.
WJW12 minutes ago
It would make sense if the AI companies were rationally valued, yes. But they're not, so it's not.
erkt42 minutes ago
With the proper facilities, isn’t it already economical to transmute mercury to gold via neutron bombardment?
WJW9 minutes ago
No it really isn't. People have transmuted a few hundred milligrams of mercury into gold in the lab with multi-million dollar machines, but that doesn't make it economically viable in the slightest.
_ache_3 hours ago
If you think that USD value will drop sharply, it's a logical thing to do.
f0012 hours ago
It’s more of losing trust in the US. If they don’t believe they’ll have access to it when needed or if they believe it might be seized for whatever made up reason, makes sense to move it somewhere they’ll have control over it.
JumpCrisscrossan hour ago
Probably not. This is non-monetary gold mostly going off to refiners. Not bullion.
bigmadshoe2 hours ago
Why would the dropping value of the USD be a factor in selling gold? Doesn't holding gold hedge against exactly that?
I think the real reason is that they're afraid of political instability in the US that may result in 1) an inability to retrieve their gold, or 2) the government confiscating it.
declan_roberts2 hours ago
I don't quite follow. Countries hold gold to protect their own currency from devaluation, not bc they expected it to become stronger against a dollar.
_ache_2 hours ago
If you have USD and you think it will value less soon, you change it to gold instead. If you own gold in the US and think that the USD value will drop very low, you move out of the USD fearing gold retention.
ericmayan hour ago
But there isn’t a good reason to think that since countries such as Italy, UK, France, and others are in much worse financial positions.
A lot of this stuff is just business as usual, and then tabloids like to turn it into some doom and gloom nonsense.
jack_pp2 hours ago
How does holding gold protect from devaluation? No one has currency backed by gold any more.
scotty792 hours ago
> How does holding gold protect from devaluation?
I think the idea is to rise the value of your currency, you rise the demand for your currency, by selling for it something that everybody wants, like gold.
Of course this demand is artificial and you'll run out of hold to sell at some point, but it can hopefully carry you over thd bump.
irishcoffee2 hours ago
I still don’t get it. Why does everyone want gold? Its uses are some types of electronics and jewelry. Almost seems like crypto, it has value because it is somewhat rare… and everyone else also thinks it has value.
Sincere question.
Supermancho2 hours ago
Gold ingot relative rarity + desirability + physical durability means it's a 'physical good' that is likely to retain value above a relative floor...ie it will always be worth something to someone, and virtually every country tracks their own estimate. Gold is a standard element of trade historically as it's a little difficult to steal (easier to defend physically) while being fairly simple to verify and measure.
iamnothereop2 hours ago
It’s similar to the valuation of crypto, being based on scarcity and mutual agreement, but without the risk of losing your funds from hacks or bugs, and without the benefit of online transfer. You can put it in a hole in the ground and it will be the exact same in 50 years. It’s shiny and has a history.
Nations like to use it for reserves because it’s stable, historically fit for the purpose of exchange, and well-understood. You can “count” it and use this to settle balances in a way that outsiders can’t easily interfere with.
Almost all “value” is strange and complex. Why is Francium, which is less useful than even gold, worth a theoretical $28 billion per ounce? (Not that you would find any buyers for that quantity.) Why is a Black Lotus card worth $3 million? Why is a dollar worth whatever you can buy for a dollar?
deadbabean hour ago
Why is a bitcoin worth anything?
coralreefan hour ago
Why is anything worth anything?
The short but final answer: because other people want it.
_ache_2 hours ago
The value of Gold isn't linked to any currency. Money is just paper (or a number) and can be de-valuated. Gold doesn't.
theendisney2 hours ago
To trade with Anunnaki. They need it to repair Nibiru's failing atmosphere.
KellyCriterion2 hours ago
LOL
Massivly surprised to see a link to this storyline/paradigm here on HN, great!
Cheers! :-))
theendisneyan hour ago
You'd be surprised what livered onions go for on Zeta Reticula.
KellyCriterion31 minutes ago
I really like this conspiracy behind this story/tale!
If you belive in such stories, it may explain why humans are so focused on Gold, and not other precious metals, which are much more rare.
The idea behind the story is just great, isnt it? The idea of whatever space travelling species to come here to mine for gold with human "robots" is really cool. While they could have landed on asteroids which much more Gold-per-ton, they chosed earth because the bio machines available here didnt need any "outer planetary" maintenance or refills?
:-D
edit: and they can replicate easily given enough environment, so you do not need spareparts when e.g. a disk fails?
AnimalMuppetan hour ago
Gold has been valued across almost all cultures for thousands of years. That creates an expectation that it will still be valued.
And, gold is limited (in recoverable quantities) in Earth's crust. Nobody can print a bunch more of it, unlike fiat currency.
Between those two, it's what many people reach for when they fear that the government is going to devalue their currency. They can buy now, with currency that will soon be worth less, and what they buy will be worth something even after the currency becomes worth less.
scotty792 hours ago
> Why does everyone want gold?
Because you sell it cheap.
> Almost seems like crypto, it has value because it is somewhat rare… and everyone else also thinks it has value.
Exactly.
It has value because it won't spoil and you can sell it later gor the same or more because it's scarce.
scotty792 hours ago
If you sell something in US, you get paid in US dollars. If you believe dollars soon won't be worth the paper they are printed on, you immediately spend dollars on something that has durable value and take it with you instead.
throwawayffffasan hour ago
It's more like if you think Trump is likely to say, actually that's my gold.
IAmGraydon2 hours ago
They think the Trump administration will confiscate it.
Dumblydorr2 hours ago
Whatever would give them that idea…
beloch23 minutes ago
"There are multiple foreign governments growing leery of the future loss of purchasing power of the U.S. dollar, where they would prefer a different reserve asset with a better track record. Among all foreign central banks combined, the value of their gold reserves now exceeds their holdings of U.S. Treasury debt."
...
"When you put these factors together, my suspicion is that a high percentage of U.S. gold exports are going to China, though some must first detour through Swiss refineries to convert the gold into kilogram bars of acceptable purity. It is possible that the U.S. government may have acquiesced in this form of payment in return for other political concessions having to do with a number of global uncertainties."
-----------------
U.S. bond yields (the interest the U.S. pays on its debt) are increasing because there is less demand for U.S. treasury bonds. Lenders are reluctant to buy U.S. government debt, but the U.S. government needs that money, so it must pay more. This reduces the value of the USD (i.e. increases inflation) and makes the USD a less attractive reserve currency (A good reserve currency holds its value.). Gold is just one alternative option, but it is something the U.S. actually has a fair amount of. The U.S. would likely be exporting Swiss francs now if it had a lot of those too.
Why is there less demand for U.S. bonds? The U.S. is accruing a lot of debt with high spending and reduced taxes at the same time AI companies are competing for investment dollars (i.e. loans). There's only so much capital to go around, so interest rates go up.
TL;DR: U.S. spends too much. Taxes too little. AI companies spend too much. Make too little. Investors want more interest to supply cash, so U.S. bond yields go up and USD value goes down. Anyone looking for stable currencies to hold start switching to gold (or others). No grand Chinese conspiracy is necessary.
legitsteran hour ago
The article points out the primary source is recycling operations.
This is not some big currency or export program. It's most likely Grandma and Grandpa hawking their jewelry.
The cash for gold industry in the US is absolutely massive and growing. Most of it is fueled by boomers dumping their assets into gold and silver - and then cashing it out when times get worse.
memcg21 minutes ago
I have 30 lbs of gold plated PCB fingers that I have saved over the years. It might be time to figure out how to recycle and sell.
setoptan hour ago
That’s not just a US boomer thing, you’ll see the same in many Arabic countries for example, across generations.
manlymuppet3 hours ago
How much of this is exports being ranked by value, and gold, even a little being worth a lot, quickly becomes the “top” export despite being relatively small in absolute quantity terms?
ashdksnndck2 hours ago
Was anyone confused by the title and thought we are exporting more gold in volume or weight than other products? It seems obvious that gold must be winning on value.
ceroxylon3 hours ago
From the article:
>That’s not just because the price of gold reached record high prices. In February 2026, the tons of gold exported may have set an all-time record.
manlymuppet2 hours ago
> Normally, America’s highest value exports are either oil, pharmaceuticals, or aircraft and their parts. Not now. Starting in October 2025, the value of gold exports has topped all other categories almost every month.
Relative to quantity, the price of gold might have less to do with why it’s the top of the list, but gold being more valuable in general might still be the main reason it’s at the top.
For example:
June
Oil at $1 a barrel
Gold at $10 a ton
100 barrels of oil exported - $100
9 tons of gold exported - $90
By value, oil is the top export.
——-
July
Oil at $1 a barrel
Gold at $9 a ton
100 barrels of oil exported - $100
12 tons of gold exported - $108
By value, gold is now the top export.
——-
Even though the price of gold dropped—-the inverse of our current situation to illustrate an extreme—-the general higher price of gold is more relevant to the ranking than its quantity increase.
maxldn2 hours ago
I feel like pharmaceuticals and aircraft are quite expensive by mass
bigmadshoe2 hours ago
Exports are typically ranked in dollars, not in kilograms. Do we think about the weight of GPUs a country exports or their value?
[deleted]2 hours agocollapsed
leopoldcongo2 hours ago
[flagged]
metalman2 hours ago
ton for ton the US top export is CO², and it's largest import is O², or was, if it has slipped then that is the main reason behind the export of ag, as all of it is tied to actual industrial capacity
EA-31673 hours ago
I doubt the veracity of this article. All previous metal exports from the US, including and not limited to gold, came third in exports as of mid-year.
https://logisticsmaterial.com/trade/americas-biggest-exports...
edit: A better source that uses Census BEA data: https://ustradesignals.com/statistics/exports-by-industry
and says the same thing.
edit2: A third source using different data saying the same thing. https://tradeint.com/insights/us-export-data/#elementor-toc_...
ceejayoz3 hours ago
Why'd you trust this particular article?
thisisthenewme3 hours ago
The article that you posted seems to be LLM slop with no references to their claims and the article in the post references data from bea.gov so :shrug:
iAMkenough41 minutes ago
All of these links are from publications I've never heard of, and have a hard time independently verifying their credibility.
For instance, TradeInt advertises it is trusted by Samsung, but I can't find any record of Samsung utilizing TradeInt for anything. TradeInt advertises a 5-star rating on platforms like Product Hunt (YC S14), yet the person who created the listing created their account when TradeInt launched and has no followers or other activity since 2024.
They all appear to be blog spam, from my perspective.
Anyone (or any AI) can publish anything to confirm any viewpoint. What makes those links worth sharing?
throwawayffffas2 hours ago
Straight up read God.
leopoldcongo2 hours ago
All the gold was stolen from Africa or South America by the Europeans no?
ralph84an hour ago
The biggest gold mines by far are in the US, Russia, and other former Soviet republics.
throw738479393 hours ago
Gold is tiny compared to oil and other energy exports. I would more watch for drop in energy exports, and how US is screwing its partners right now!