Article: BRICs Launch Gold- Backed Currency

quote:

---

BRICS Launch Gold-Backed Currency

Richard (Rick) Mills Mining Expert & Financial Writer
December 29, 2025

The BRICS countries are moving away from the US dollar as the currency that settles international transactions, and gold is an integral part of the new settlement mechanism.

The Unit

On Oct. 31, 2025, researchers launched a pilot to test a gold-anchored settlement “Unit” inside the 10-member BRICS+ bloc of countries, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

This was followed by a Unit prototype launched on Dec. 8.

The four original BRICS members were Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The six additional countries were invited to become BRICS members following the 2023 BRICS Summit.

The Unit is a “digital trade currency” pilot created for settlement between BRICS economies. The initiative came from IRIAS, the International Research Institute for Advanced Systems.

Importantly, the Unit does not replace national currencies. Rather, it aims to act as a neutral settlement tool that reduces reliance on the US dollar in trade between BRICS economies.

According to CCN:

The BRICS Unit is a gold-anchored digital trade currency designed for cross-border settlement.
Its launch coincides with record public anxiety about dollar debasement, as shown in Google Trends data shared by Bloomberg.
The prototype uses a 40% gold and 60% BRICS-currency basket that adjusts daily.
The pilot signals a structural move toward de-dollarization and strengthens long-term global demand for gold.
Why are the BRICS doing this?

Regarding bullet point two, CCN says public interest in dollar debasement has reached a new peak. It cites Google Trends data shared by Bloomberg Opinion that shows an unprecedented spike in searches for the term during the last quarter of 2025.

There are several reasons why the BRICS created the Unit to trade without the dollar. Members face sanctions, high dollar borrowing costs, and volatility tied to US monetary policy.

The Unit would allow them to settle trade without using US banks; store value using gold instead of foreign currency reserves; reduce exposure to dollar liquidity shocks and build a monetary framework independent of Western systems.

Macro trends driving the initiative include US deficit spending, with heavy borrowing raising doubts about the dollar’s long-term strength; geopolitical fragmentation, with rival blocs seeking options beyond dollar-based systems; elevated inflation which is pushing capital into more stable assets; declining purchasing power, with many currencies losing value faster than wages or savings can keep up; and rising gold demand, with central banks continuing to increase their reserves.

Investing News Network adds that the BRICS want to set up a new currency due to aggressive US foreign policies, including the US placing sanctions on Russia and Iran. The two countries are reportedly working together to bring about a BRICS currency that would negate the economic impacts of such restrictions.

The BRICS want to better serve their own economic interests while reducing global dependence on the dollar and the euro, INN states.

In this sense, the horse has already left the barn.

As IDN Financials explains:

In parallel, Russia and China now settle almost all of their bilateral trade using the yuan and the rouble, while local currencies dominate transactions across the Eurasian Economic Union. This de-dollarisation process accelerated following Western sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

(As much as $250 billion worth of Russian assets have been frozen in the European Union since the U.S. and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry — Reuters)

Operability

The Unit “combines hard assets with national currencies to create a settlement instrument that avoids dependence on a single economy.”

The reserve basket is composed of 40% physical gold (40 grams gold in the initial test) and 60% BRICS currencies, split into five equal weights of 12% each: real, yuan, rupee, ruble and rand.

As for how the Unit would actually operate, CCN explains that gold would stabilize valuations during periods of currency volatility, and that all deposits and daily pricing updates would run on a blockchain maintained by IRIAS.

It’s important to clarify that at this stage the Unit is only a prototype; it has not yet been adopted by BRICS central banks.

---