The Bank of France has sold its last gold reserves to the Federal Reserve. The sale operation, which was followed by the purchase of new ingots, generated a huge capital gain of 12.8 billion euros.
There great ride of the price of gold, which stopped only with the start of the war in the Middle East, once again brought to the attention of governments around the world the strategic importance of having gold reserves.
Among these is France, which in addition to the need to maintain reserves of precious metal seems to have given equal importance to the place where it is kept.
Paris brings all the gold to France
The Bank of France has in fact sold its gold reserves kept in New York, replacing them with superior quality ingots now stored entirely in Paris.
At the center of the operation, which started in July 2025 and ended in January 2026, are 129 metric tons of goldapproximately 5% of the total French reserves, which lay in the vaults of Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Instead of proceeding with a complex and expensive refining of the ingots that do not comply with modern standards, the Bank opted for the sale of the dated gold, followed by the simultaneous repurchase of new certified ingots.
There was therefore no physical transport of the metal across the Atlantic, it was a pure and simple market operation, divided into 26 distinct transactions. With the completion of this operation, all of France’s gold reserves are now stored in the vaults of the Bank of Franceon the national territory.
Record sale
The intervention took the form of a strategy divided into 26 transactions carried out between July 2025 and January 2026, for a total value of 13 billion euros, generating an incredible capital gain of 12.8 billion euros.
The capital gain was distributed in 11 billion in 2025 and 1.8 billion in 2026. The result had an immediate and decisive impact on the accounts of the central institution, with the sale and repurchase operation which transformed a potential loss into a net profit of 8.1 billion for 2025, overturning the red of 7.7 billion recorded the previous year.
An incredible turnaround, achieved by making the most of the high prices of the yellow metal. The governor of the Bank of France, Villeroy de Galhaudefined the operation as “exceptional”, specifying that he however had no intention of repeating it.
The price of gold remains high
Without the immense gold price rallywhich began in 2024 and continued vigorously throughout 2025, such an operation would not have been possible.
But everything has an end, and so does the astonishing growth in the price of gold seems to have reached its conclusionthanks to the war in the Middle East.
From peaks of 5,200 dollars an ounce, the yellow metal has fallen to just over $4,608a sharp decline compared to the previous month.
The the metal has in fact lost around 12% of its value since the conflict beganas war-related increases in energy prices have fueled inflation fears and increased the likelihood that central banks will delay interest rate cuts.
Yet those who look at the bigger picture, five years out, find little to complain about: the 52-week price range for gold futures oscillates between $2,970 and $5,626, with a change in the last year of 57%.
Comparing current prices to those of just four or five years ago, when an ounce was around 1,800 dollars, the overall profit well exceeds the 150%.
A performance that explains why the Bank of France chose exactly this moment to proceed with its replacement operation, and why the issue of gold reserves forcefully returns to the center of the economic strategies of the large Western countries.
