- The pilot BRICS Gold Unit launched on October 31, 2025, as a digital settlement instrument combining gold and member currencies.
- Each unit combines 40% physical gold (40 grams per unit) with a 60% basket of BRICS currencies and is run on a blockchain by IRIAS.
- The design uses deliverable kilo-bar gold held in escrow on the mBridge ledger to reduce volatility and exposure to sanction-related payment risks.
- BRICS members hold over 6,000 tonnes of gold collectively, and central bank purchases from 2020–2024 exceeded half of global acquisitions.
- The pilot remains in research phase without formal central bank adoption and targets governments, banks and cross-border settlement rather than consumers.
The BRICS gold Unit pilot launched on October 31, 2025, combining physical gold and member currencies as an alternative settlement tool to reduce reliance on the dollar and limit sanction exposure. The digital instrument is intended for cross-border trade clearing and is maintained on blockchain systems to provide stability and integration with existing financial infrastructure.
Each unit contains 40 grams of physical gold plus equal portions of the Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, Russian and South African currency components. IRIAS operates the blockchain ledger for the instrument, and designers say the structure anchors value in gold while keeping links to member currencies for practical clearing.
Andy Schectman, president of Miles Franklin, clarified operational details, saying “That gold will be in the form of kilo bars and will be deliverable or redeemable for those entities. The basket of gold and the basket of currencies will be minted in the member countries, it will be put into an escrow account, taken off the ledger so to speak—off of their balance sheet and put onto the mBridge ledger, and held in an escrow account in their own borders.” The Unit is meant for settlement invoices and clearing, not consumer payments.
BRICS central banks hold more than 6,000 tonnes of gold collectively, with about 2,336 tonnes in Russia, 2,298 tonnes in China and 880 tonnes in India. Officials note heavy central-bank buying from 2020–2024, and economist Yevgeny Biryukov described gold as “a tool to protect against sanction risks, a response to the unreliability of traditional partners, and a tangible asset recognised for thousands of years.”
The initiative faces coordination and legal complexity across diverse members and remains a research-stage project without formal BRICS central bank adoption. Brazil’s international affairs advisor Celso Amorim said, “Many wonder if the US dollar will disappear. No one plans to do that. The United States is a big country whose economy remains crucial for the entire world. However, an alternative still needs to exist.”
The pilot has issued 100 units, each initially pegged to 1 gram of gold, and is presented as a measured approach to financial independence for states and banks rather than an immediate dollar replacement. Nathan Lewis likened the strategy to moving change cautiously, calling it a deliberate, risk-averse implementation.
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