What Is the BRICS Currency? The Gold-Backed Unit Explained
Author: Meesam Abbas | Last Updated: July 2026 | Sources: Federal Reserve, IMF, Reuters, RBC Wealth Management citing IMF, JPMorgan
The BRICS currency does not exist — and at the October 2024 Kazan summit, Vladimir Putin himself called the idea of a unified BRICS currency "premature." (Reuters, October 2024) Yet the idea of a gold-backed BRICS currency has become one of the most discussed — and most misunderstood — concepts in global finance. BRICS nations now represent approximately 40% of global GDP in purchasing power parity terms and 56% of the world's population, according to IMF data — and what they are actually building to challenge the dollar is far more consequential than any single currency announcement. (RBC Wealth Management citing IMF, 2025)
Key Takeaways
- No BRICS currency has been formally adopted. At the October 2024 Kazan summit, Putin called a unified BRICS currency "premature" and the Kazan declaration instead endorsed greater use of local currencies for intra-BRICS trade. (Reuters, October 2024)
- BRICS has expanded to 10 full members and 10 partner countries as of 2025 — representing approximately 40% of global GDP (PPP), 56% of global population, and average GDP growth of 3.8% in 2025 versus just 1% for the G7. (IMF data via RBC Wealth Management, 2025)
- The US dollar's share of global FX reserves stood at 58% in 2024 — down from a peak of 72% in 2001 but far ahead of the euro (20%), yen (6%), pound (5%), and renminbi (2%). The Federal Reserve concludes the dollar "will likely remain the world's dominant international currency for the foreseeable future." (Federal Reserve, July 2025)
- The Chinese renminbi represents only 2% of global FX reserves and 7% of FX trading — meaning that even the most capable BRICS currency alternative has not come close to replacing the dollar in any measurable dimension. (Federal Reserve, July 2025)
- What BRICS is actually building — local currency settlement systems, expanded New Development Bank lending, bilateral swap arrangements, and the mBridge cross-border CBDC platform — is more incremental than revolutionary, but represents a genuine and accelerating structural shift away from dollar dependence in specific trade corridors. (Reuters, October 2024)
- BRICS (10 members) share of global GDP (PPP): approximately 40% in 2025 — RBC Wealth Management citing IMF, 2025
- BRICS+ (20 members + partners) share: approximately 44% of global GDP (PPP), 56% of global population
- BRICS average GDP growth 2025: 3.8% vs G7 average 1% — IMF WEO projections
- US dollar share of global FX reserves (2024): 58% — Federal Reserve, July 2025
- Dollar share peak (2001): 72% of global reserves — Federal Reserve, July 2025
- Chinese renminbi share of global reserves: 2% — Federal Reserve, July 2025
- Dollar share of international SWIFT payments: approximately 50% (slightly increased in recent years) — Federal Reserve, July 2025
- Dollar involvement in global FX trading: 88–89% (BIS triennial survey 2025) — Federal Reserve, July 2025
- New Development Bank cumulative lending: over $30 billion
- mBridge transaction volume: $55.49 billion (2,500-fold increase from 2022 pilots) — Atlantic Council, May 2026
What Is the BRICS Currency?
The phrase "BRICS currency" has generated enormous online attention, much of it based on a misunderstanding of what BRICS leaders have actually said and decided. The most authoritative statement on the topic came from the man most associated with the idea: at the October 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Putin himself called discussion of a unified BRICS currency "premature." (Reuters, October 2024) What the Kazan declaration actually endorsed was significantly more modest: greater use of national currencies in intra-BRICS trade, development of an alternative cross-border payment mechanism, and a grain exchange proposal. There was no agreed currency, no announced timeline, and no gold backing.
The idea has traction because the underlying grievance is real. BRICS nations — accounting for 40% of the global economy but excluded from meaningful control over the dollar-dominated international financial system — have genuine economic and political incentives to reduce dollar dependence. Russia, subject to sweeping SWIFT exclusion and dollar-denominated asset freezes since 2022, has the most urgent motivation. Iran and China face similarly acute dollar vulnerabilities. Brazil and India — the two largest BRICS economies after China — have been more cautious, recognizing that the costs of breaking from the dollar system would fall disproportionately on them. This internal division is precisely why Kazan produced local currency endorsements rather than a currency announcement. For the full context of how the dollar maintains its global role, see [What Is a Reserve Currency? How the Dollar Became Global Money].
BRICS Membership and Economic Weight in 2026
The original BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — was coined as an investment thesis by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001, not as a geopolitical bloc. It became a formal summit organization in 2009 with the addition of South Africa in 2011. The 2024 Kazan summit marked its most significant expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia were invited, though Saudi Arabia's formal status remains a matter of ongoing clarification. Argentina, also invited, declined under President Milei. By 2025, the group had added 10 partner countries including Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. (Reuters, January 2024)
The economic weight of this expanded group is genuinely significant. IMF data shows the 10 BRICS members account for approximately 40% of global GDP measured at purchasing power parity — compared to 28% for the G7 — and that gap is widening. (RBC Wealth Management citing IMF, 2025) BRICS average GDP growth in 2025 is projected at 3.8%, versus just 1% for the G7 — a more than threefold difference. India at 6.2% and Ethiopia at 6.6% are the fastest-growing members. China, which accounts for approximately 70% of the group's combined GDP, is the dominant economic force by an enormous margin. The group's economic diversity is both its greatest asset and its greatest limitation: the strategic interests of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, sanctions-hit Russia, and fast-growing India align on dollar frustration but diverge sharply on everything else.
May 2026: Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov stated that BRICS would not rush further expansion, emphasizing the need to streamline the group's work following its recent enlargement. The 2026 rotating presidency under India has chosen the theme "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability" — focused on institutional depth rather than geographic breadth. India under Modi has consistently resisted being drawn into an explicitly anti-Western framing, preferring BRICS as a platform for Global South representation rather than a US confrontation vehicle.
Why a Gold-Backed BRICS Currency Is Not Happening
The gold-backed BRICS currency idea circulates primarily in financial commentary and social media — not in any verified BRICS official statement. It gained traction after Russia's 2022 suggestion that it would accept gold for energy payments, and after various think-tank papers explored the theoretical possibility of a commodity-backed unit. But at every actual BRICS summit, including Kazan 2024, the discussion has been about local currency settlement and alternative payment mechanisms — not a shared currency backed by gold or any other commodity. (Reuters, October 2024)
The technical obstacles are decisive. The gold standard requires a country to fix its currency's value to a specific gold price and maintain gold reserves sufficient to redeem all outstanding currency at that price. The United States — the world's largest economy, with the world's largest gold reserves and deepest capital markets — abandoned the gold standard in 1971 because it was incompatible with domestic monetary policy flexibility. For BRICS to operate a gold-backed common currency, all 10 member countries would need to agree on a fixed gold conversion rate, accumulate sufficient gold reserves collectively, subordinate their domestic monetary policies to that fixed rate, and maintain a credible commitment mechanism even during economic stress. India and Brazil — with divergent inflation rates, debt levels, and trade profiles from Russia and China — would be accepting constraints on their monetary sovereignty that even the European Union's euro project, built over decades among much more economically similar countries, has struggled to sustain.
The deeper economic reality is that no currency succeeds because it is backed by gold. Currencies succeed because the countries issuing them have deep liquid financial markets, rule of law that protects foreign investors, and the economic weight to make their currency unavoidable in global trade. China, Russia, India, Brazil, and South Africa combined do not offer these characteristics in the integrated way that the United States does — which is precisely why the renminbi, despite China's extraordinary economic rise, accounts for only 2% of global foreign exchange reserves. For the petrodollar system that makes dollar dependence structural for oil-importing countries, see [The Petrodollar System Explained: Why Oil Was Priced in Dollars for 50 Years].
The Dollar's Actual Position: Dominant but Slowly Retreating
The Federal Reserve publishes an annual assessment of the dollar's international role, and the July 2025 edition — its most comprehensive in recent years — presents a nuanced picture that is neither the crisis-level dollar collapse that BRICS proponents predict nor the undiminished hegemony that US officials sometimes claim. (Federal Reserve, July 2025) The dollar's share of global FX reserves was 58% in 2024 — down from a peak of 72% in 2001, but also slightly above where it was in 1995. Most of the decline reflects diversification into a range of smaller currencies including the Australian and Canadian dollars rather than a surge in renminbi or BRICS currency holding. The renminbi's share remains at 2%.
In the most transactionally significant dimension — foreign exchange trading — the dollar's position is essentially unchanged. The BIS triennial survey in 2025 found the dollar involved in 88–89% of all FX transactions, approximately the same as in 1989 when the survey began. The dollar's share of international SWIFT payments is approximately 50% — and the Federal Reserve noted it has "slightly increased in recent years." Trade invoicing data is similarly stable: the IMF's September 2025 working paper, covering 132 countries from 1990 to 2023, found that "the US dollar remains dominant, with global invoicing shares broadly stable." (IMF, September 2025) The BIS calculates that 96% of trade in the Americas is invoiced in dollars, 74% in Asia-Pacific, and only 23% in Europe.
Where de-dollarization is genuinely occurring is in central bank FX reserve diversification and commodity markets. IMF COFER data shows the dollar's reserve share declined from 64.69% in Q1 2017 to approximately 58% in 2024 — a meaningful decline of roughly 7 percentage points over eight years, driven by central banks adding Australian and Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, and renminbi to their reserve portfolios. JPMorgan notes that de-dollarization is "most visible in commodity markets, where a large and growing proportion of energy is being priced in non-dollar-denominated contracts." (JPMorgan) Gold is the primary beneficiary: EM central bank gold holdings have grown from 4% of reserves a decade ago to approximately 9% now. For the full de-dollarization picture, see [What Is De-Dollarization? Why the Dollar's Reserve Status Is Declining].
What BRICS Is Actually Building: Real Alternatives to the Dollar
The New Development Bank — often called the BRICS Bank — was established in 2015 with $100 billion in subscribed capital and initial lending in US dollars. It has since lent over $30 billion to infrastructure and development projects across member countries. The NDB's significance is less in its current scale — which remains a fraction of World Bank or IMF lending — and more in its existence as a credible multilateral lender that BRICS nations control rather than Western-dominated institutions where they have limited voting rights. The NDB has begun lending in local currencies including the renminbi, rupee, and rand — reducing the dollar exposure of borrower countries on at least the NDB portion of their debt.
The mBridge cross-border CBDC platform is the most technologically significant BRICS-adjacent infrastructure development. Involving the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, mBridge had processed $55.49 billion in transaction volume by 2026 — a 2,500-fold increase from its 2022 pilots — with China's digital yuan accounting for over 95% of settlement volume. By late 2025, Forbes described mBridge as "in practice a renminbi-denominated wholesale settlement rail for trade between China and the Gulf, running outside the dollar correspondent system." This is not a BRICS currency — it is something potentially more significant: a functioning cross-border payment infrastructure that processes real transactions in real time outside the dollar-SWIFT system. For the full CBDC context, see [What Is a CBDC? Central Bank Digital Currency Explained].
The most honest assessment of where BRICS's dollar challenge stands in July 2026 is this: the group has successfully built the institutional foundation for reduced dollar dependence — a development bank, expanding bilateral swap lines, a functioning cross-border settlement platform, and a growing political coalition of countries motivated to use these alternatives. What it has not built is a common currency, a reserve asset, or anything that comes close to rivaling the dollar's 88% share of global FX trading or 58% share of reserves. The trajectory favors gradual erosion of dollar dominance in specific corridors and commodity markets over decades — not a sudden replacement driven by a BRICS currency announcement. For how the [US stablecoin strategy] fits into this competition, see our dedicated explainer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the BRICS currency?
The BRICS currency does not exist. There is no adopted, launched, or formally agreed common BRICS currency as of July 2026. At the October 2024 Kazan summit, Putin called a unified BRICS currency "premature," and the Kazan declaration endorsed local currency use and a cross-border payment system rather than a common currency. BRICS is pursuing dollar alternatives through the New Development Bank, bilateral swap arrangements, and the mBridge payment platform.
What is the gold-backed BRICS currency?
The gold-backed BRICS currency is a concept that has circulated widely in financial commentary but has never been formally proposed by any BRICS head of state or endorsed in any BRICS summit declaration. No major economy has operated on a gold standard since the Bretton Woods system ended in 1971. The coordination requirements among 10 economically diverse BRICS members — agreeing on a fixed gold conversion rate, accumulating sufficient reserves, and subordinating domestic monetary policy — make it economically and politically impossible in any near-term scenario.
Who are the BRICS members in 2026?
BRICS has 10 full members in 2026: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE. The group also has 10 partner countries: Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. India holds the 2026 rotating presidency. Russia's Lavrov stated in May 2026 that BRICS would not rush further expansion, preferring to deepen institutional work among existing members.
What percentage of global GDP does BRICS represent?
The 10 BRICS full members represent approximately 40% of global GDP measured at purchasing power parity in 2025, compared to 28% for the G7, according to IMF data. The extended BRICS+ group of 20 members and partners represents approximately 44% of global GDP (PPP) and 56% of the world's population. China accounts for approximately 70% of the combined BRICS GDP, making it the group's dominant economic power by an enormous margin.
Is the dollar losing its reserve currency status?
The dollar has declined from 72% of global FX reserves in 2001 to 58% in 2024 — a meaningful reduction, but one that leaves it far ahead of all alternatives. The Federal Reserve's July 2025 analysis concluded the dollar "will likely remain the world's dominant international currency for the foreseeable future." The renminbi represents only 2% of global reserves, and the dollar's share of global FX trading remains at 88–89% — essentially unchanged since 1989.
What did the Kazan BRICS summit decide about a common currency?
The October 2024 Kazan summit explicitly did not adopt a common BRICS currency. Putin called such a currency "premature." The Kazan declaration endorsed greater use of national currencies in intra-BRICS trade, instructed central bank governors to develop an alternative cross-border payment mechanism and report back, and supported a BRICS grain exchange proposal. No timeline, no design, and no gold backing were announced.
What is the New Development Bank?
The New Development Bank — the BRICS Bank — was established in 2015 with $100 billion in subscribed capital by the original five BRICS members. It has cumulatively lent over $30 billion to infrastructure and development projects, and has begun issuing loans in local currencies including the renminbi, rupee, and rand. While still a fraction of World Bank or IMF lending capacity, it provides BRICS nations with a multilateral lender they control rather than institutions dominated by Western voting weights.
What is mBridge and how does it relate to BRICS?
mBridge is a multi-central bank digital currency (CBDC) cross-border payment platform involving the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. It processed $55.49 billion in transaction volume by 2026 — a 2,500-fold increase since 2022 — with China's digital yuan accounting for over 95% of settlement volume. By late 2025 it was functioning as a wholesale settlement rail between China and the Gulf outside the dollar-SWIFT system. mBridge is not formally a BRICS project but overlaps heavily with BRICS member priorities.
What is de-dollarization and is it happening?
De-dollarization is the process of reducing global economic dependence on the US dollar for trade settlement, reserve holdings, and financial transactions. It is happening gradually and unevenly. Dollar FX reserve holdings have declined from 72% (2001) to 58% (2024). De-dollarization is most visible in commodity markets and bilateral trade arrangements — less so in SWIFT payments and FX trading, where the dollar's share has been stable to slightly increasing.
Why can't BRICS just use the renminbi as a common currency?
The renminbi cannot currently serve as a global reserve currency because China maintains capital controls limiting how freely the currency can flow across its borders, does not offer the deep and open financial markets that make the dollar attractive to reserve managers, and has not established the geopolitical trust and rule of law credibility that major reserve currency holders require. The renminbi represents just 2% of global FX reserves despite China's extraordinary economic growth — demonstrating that economic size alone does not create reserve currency status.
Sources and Further Reading
- Federal Reserve. The International Role of the US Dollar — 2025 Edition. July 2025. [https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/the-international-role-of-the-u-s-dollar-2025-edition-20250718.html]
- IMF. Dollar Dominance in the International Reserve System: An Update. June 2024. [https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2024/06/11/dollar-dominance-in-the-international-reserve-system-an-update]
- IMF. Patterns of Invoicing Currency in Global Trade in a Fragmenting World Economy. September 2025. [https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2025/09/12/patterns-of-invoicing-currency-in-global-trade-in-a-fragmenting-world-economy-570297]
- IMF. COFER — Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves. March 2026. [https://data.imf.org/en/datasets/IMF.STA:COFER]
- Reuters. Spurred by Shared Grievances, BRICS Gathers Pace. October 2024. [https://www.reuters.com/world/spurred-by-shared-grievances-brics-gathers-pace-2024-10-24/]
- Reuters. Main Points of BRICS Declaration — Kazan 2024. October 2024. [https://www.reuters.com/world/factobox-main-points-brics-declaration-2024-10-23/]
- RBC Wealth Management. How BRICS Sees the World. 2025. [https://www.rbcwealthmanagement.com/en-us/insights/how-brics-sees-the-world]
- JPMorgan. De-Dollarization: The End of Dollar Dominance? Global Research. [https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/global-research/currencies/de-dollarization]
The BRICS currency story is ultimately a story about the gap between financial geopolitics and financial reality. The motivation to reduce dollar dependence is genuine — and accelerating as US sanctions, dollar weaponization, and tariff policy give more countries more reasons to seek alternatives. But motivation is not the same as capacity. What BRICS has built — local currency settlement, the New Development Bank, bilateral swaps, and mBridge — represents real and incremental dollar erosion in specific corridors. What it has not built, and cannot build quickly, is a currency that competes with the dollar's 58% share of global reserves or 89% share of FX trading. For the broader picture of where these trends are heading, see [What Is De-Dollarization? Why the Dollar's Reserve Status Is Declining] and [The Petrodollar System Explained].
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