The Netherlands Just Moved Over $10 Billion in Gold Out of US Vaults – Here’s Why.

The Netherlands Moves More Than $10 Billion in Gold Out of United States Vaults

(Sept. 3, 2026) – In a major move, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) this week announced that it moved more than $10 billion worth of gold out of vaults in the United States. The gold is now housed in Great Britain. Prior to the move, approximately 31.3% of the Netherlands central bank’s estimated 612.4 metric tons of gold were held in American vaults. American vaults now oversee just 18.5% of these gold reserves, the same percentage held in Ottawa, Canada.

In a written statement, the DNB said that the decision was intended to improve the central bank’s preparedness for “severe crises,” citing “increasing geopolitical unrest” as part of its reasoning for moving gold out of American vaults and into storage facilities in London.

Olaf Sleijpen, president of the DNB, said in the press release that the relocation is intended to improve the tradability of the DNB’s gold reserves.

With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves. We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.

Sleijpen did not specify what – if any – specific event precipitated the move. However, DNB officials did state that the decision to move gold from American to British vaults is part of a larger risk diversification effort.

In view of increasing geopolitical unrest, DNB is strengthening its crisis preparedness. Improving the liquidity and tradability of the Dutch gold reserves is part of these preparations. Moreover, a more balanced distribution of these reserves between North America, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands helps to spread risks and will make them more readily available for use in a crisis situation.

The relocation resulted in an even split between Dutch gold held in Ottawa and New York, with both the U.S. and Canada holding 18.5% of the DNB’s total gold reserves. 30.8% of the central bank’s gold is stored at a DNB-controlled facility in Zeist. With the gold transferred from the United States, London now holds the largest percentage of the DNB’s gold reserves, at 32.1%.

This move follows another set of escalations in the US-Canada trade war. Trade negotiations between the two countries collapsed last month, with the United States imposing a 50% tariff on an estimated $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in March of 2025, has taken a hardline defensive stance against the United States’ efforts to exert economic pressure on its northern neighbors.

To execute the relocation, the Dutch central bank says it began by selling around 59 metric tons of gold in New York before buying LBMA-approved gold in Great Britain. Later, the DNB physically transported over 27 metric tons of gold from the U.S. and Canada to its facility in Zeist. Finally, Zeist transferred a “similar quantity of gold” suitable for international trade to London. This was done to prevent “the need to remelt gold bars,” some of which likely would not meet the strict good delivery standards set by the London Bullion Market Association.

The relocation process occurred over six months, beginning in March. The DNB statement did not mention the US-Canada trade conflict directly.

As Fortune reports, experts have called the Dutch effort to relocate central bank gold highly irregular. Paul Donovan, chief economist for the Swiss banking group UBS, clarified that while the move should have little impact on actual markets, it may signal a growing sense of uneasiness, particularly in the U.S. treasuries market.

But, even allowing for the fact that central banks’ gold holdings tend to represent some of the most conservative and risk-averse decisions one can find anywhere, the signals around trust and the international reputation of the United States are quite dramatic.

Donovan explained that the gold relocation coincided with an effort from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to avoid a flood of international investors pulling out of the Treasury bond market.

One reason U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was reported to have intervened in the support of the yen in the past was the desire to prevent Japanese investors rushing for the exit of the U.S. Treasury bond market. While this was going on, the central bank of the Netherlands was apparently rushing to the exit of the New York Federal Reserve with as much gold as it could carry stuffed into its pockets.

Back to the gold market itself, central banks are still in a buying mood. The World Gold Council reports that central banks around the world logged a net gain in gold holdings during the month of July, with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and Poland’s central bank leading the charge with 20 and 8 metric tons purchased, respectively.

For the American gold market, analysts say traders shouldn’t expect any major ripples following the Dutch central bank’s relocation efforts. The gold formerly housed in New York and Ottawa is now in London, one of the world’s largest facilitators of the gold trade. If markets do see a shift in demand after the surprise announcement, it’s far more likely to be downstream of one of the DNB’s motivating reasons, rather than the move itself.

This page will be updated as more information becomes available.

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