CICC: Can gold replace the US dollar?

The Zhitong Finance App learned that CICC released a research report saying that the price of gold has repeatedly reached new highs in the past few years, which does not mean that the old system is making a comeback, but rather an echo of the fission of the New World. What is really happening is not the “revival” of the gold standard; rather, the foundation of the US dollar's hegemony has begun to falter, and the prototype of a multipolar monetary system is emerging. Gold is being repriced, but since the global economic and political landscape has changed, and the gold standard also has inherent flaws, it is impossible for us to return to the era where scarce metals determined the monetary order. Gold can still be used as a stored value and safe-haven asset in a multi-polarized pattern, but it cannot replace the function of credit money in interest rate regulation, liquidity supply, and asset pricing, nor can it meet the structural requirements of the modern financial system for safe assets.

In the gold standard era, gold was once the center of operation of the international monetary system, and the global economy and trade ushered in unprecedented prosperity under the gold standard system. After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the US dollar became the center of the international monetary system with deep financial markets, strong sovereign credit, and perfect institutional guarantees, while gold retreated as a special commodity with risk diversification functions.

The bank mentioned, however, that in recent years, as the comparative advantage of the US economy declined and the country's debt burden increased, the US dollar's institutional trust began to crack due to hegemonic abuse. In particular, after the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 and Trump's “equal tariffs” in 2025, global investors began to re-evaluate the safety of dollar assets, and the international monetary system accelerated its fragmentation and diversification. In an age of turmoil in the international monetary system, people naturally refocused their eyes on gold. Indeed, gold also experienced a significant round of revaluation and “decoupled” from interest rates on US bonds.