De-Dollarization & The Gold Surge: A New Era for the Imitation Market

2025 and 2026 is year is the year of “Polycrisis” Why? It is the convergence of geopolitical Instability, Monetary Restructuring and the Shifting of Consumer Behaviours. And in this chaos there is a storm which is valuation of precious metals. Gold & Silver has made record high price mark. It is not driven by any retail surge but it is done by strategic accumulation by the worlds most powerful countries’ central banks such as – Russia, China & India. Due to Mr. Uncertain Donald Trump and his strategic blunder of sinking dollar’s reputation by his Untrustworthiness.

In this article we will see that this surge in Gold & Silver prices is not a commodity boom but it is a sign of fragile geopolitics. The whole history and reason behind all of this. For countries like India (has most of the gold due to culture and tradition) there will be chances of change in societal norms because Gold and Silver is unreachable asset class for typical middle class there is a high chance that people will shift towards imitation jewellery. This might be the permanent evolution of Indian Wedding and Adornment economy which is supported by Changing Demographics and Rise of Premium Metals.

Lets see everything one by one…

(1) The Geopolitics – Arctic, Dollar, and the Dome

To understand all of this we have learn history. That whole history and timeline is out of the scope of this article. But I will explain you enough so that you can understand this current article

Just remember this to understand whole topic…

USA’s President (Donald Trump) is Crazy. He wants to maintain US Hegemony of USA = World’s Super Power Everyone Listens to Us. We are the sole Protector of the World. Everyone uses Our Dollar. He thinks that we are still living in a World War era of Dual Polar World of USA & Russia or USA and China.

But upcoming super powers and like India and other African & Latin American Countries challenging this ideology they believe in “Multipolar World Order” where every country has its Sovereignty. Basically it is NATO vs BRICS. America is feared from expansion of BRICS and changing world order.

Plus there is a war between Russia & Ukraine. Ukraine want to continue this war and not even listening to Donald Trump. And also EU (European Union) bandwagon joined this Ukraine. America dont want to continue this war due to loss of Funds (USA is giving major funds in NATO). Donald Trump want to mediate between Russia and Ukraine (due to his personal interest in Ukraine’s Resources) but it is not happening.

To counter upcoming economies like China and India. US must protect dollar and need more resource. India is the major market of goods (has good population for consumption of goods) everyone want to trade with India. Major countries has signed Trade Deals with India. But due to Trump’s Egoistic nature he want to look at USA’s national interest only and want to trade with India only on his conditions. That is why India is keeping distance with USA and aligning with Russia more.

So Trump started Tariff War with Major countries to make them listen to USA. Basically USA wants complete dominance of World but NO ONE IS LISTENING their sh#t.

1.1 Resource, Nationalism and Trump’s Greenland Strategy

In recent months Trump’s Administration intensified interest in acquiring Greenland which is a semi autonomous territory of Denmark. The main reasons for this are these.

(a) Global Warming and Opening of New Sea Routes

Currently as we are seeing that Global temperature is rising very fast. People are trading with each other with the old conventional sea routes but due to rise of this temperature. Arctic ice is melting.

The routes which were note there are now operatable and this can drastically reduce the distance between many countries.

Why this is interesting because majorly most of the trades around the world is done via Sea. So finding shortest distance between countries can drastically reduce the Cost of Transportation and It will save a Lot of Time in Trade. We can think that this is small thing but for when we are talking about billions of dollars of trade and thousands of trade vessels then this cost can make significant difference.

(b) Rush for Critical Minerals

From your mobile phone to your car. From a CNC machine to space jet everything has chips. These electronic chips has many elements those elements are very rare and there are very complex and costly process to extract those minerals (elements). Very few countries has these kind of mineral elements in their crust (land) such as China, Australia, Greenland etc.

Basically these countries are sitting on the Gold Mine. Whoever has these elements will dominate in future. So everyone wants this.

Currently China is the country who is having a lot of resources as well as their processing capabilities. Basically whole world majorly depends on China for Rare Earth Minerals or Rare Earth Elements (REE). But recently when Trump started Tarriff War with other countries including China then China stopped the REE supplies. That was the Alert Bell for USA. Now USA knows that this is the leverage of China and USA needs alternative for this.

Greenland has western sphere’s major REE around 1.5 million metric tons including substantial amount of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.

There are two specific project that I want to highlight

1. The Kvanefjeld Project: World’s one of the largest multi element deposit which contains elements like Uranium & Zinc.
2. The Tanbreez Project: This project has got attention of US Government. In June 2025, US extended a letter of interest for a $120 million loan to Critical Metal Corp to fund the development of the Tanbreez Mine

Right now Trump administration framing Greenland as “Necessory For National Security”. It elevates the acquisition of this resource by any means including military actions. even Trump has said this “We will acquire Greenland by any means“

(c) Golden Dome Strategy

Beyond minerals, the geographic location of Greenland is very good for “Golden Dome” strategy. What is Golden Dome? – It is a multilayerd missile defense system designed to intercept hypersonic and ballistic missiles. When you see world map from top you will find that arctic region is the shortest path for missiles. In this era of supersonic and hypersonic missiles even few seconds can make a huge difference.

This arctic region is the shortest trajectory for missiles launched from Russia/China to USA. Just see the image below from

1.2 “Sell America” Trade

USA’s downfall was inevitable but Donald Trump has intensified it. Donald Trump is giving open threat to European Countries about tariff. He is specifically targeting Denmark and Eu Countries if they obstruct the plan of Greenland.

Global investors are feared due to USA’s Trade policies. USA is weaponizing tariffs as a tool of negotiation even if it is a NATO (Ally country) Country. This caused few reactions in financial markets

1. Treasury Yields Spiked: Due to drastic change in US foreign policy demand for US debt softened. The yields on the 10 year treasury sored above 4.3% which signals drop in bond prices.
2. Dollar Weakness: The US dollar index faced downward pressure because of this policy change and political volatility. People tried to diversify the capital investments and shifting away from dollar.
3. GOLD the Ultimate Currency: With this political volatility Gold emerged as the safest option for investors. Gold Prices made record high of $4000/oz due to this geopolitical change.

(2) De-Dollarization

In the Russia-Ukraine War, USA and the NATO Allies froze all Russian Assets, kick Russia Out of SWIFT payment systems, Froze all Bank accounts of Russia basically everything and every connection with Russia has been stopped and even NATO wanted other countries to join their bandwagon but many sovereign countries like India, China, BRICS refused to do so.

This freezing all asset was wakeup call for the “Global South” countries (developing countries or emerging future economies). They feared that this can be us also when we do not agree with their terms and conditions. So, this was the moment when term “De-Dollarization” was coined.

A system where trade will be done without using dollars to remove dependency of the US dollar. Again when this term was coined this was also the wakeup call for US about De-Dollarization that is why US became aggressive for Dollar and started implementing Nationalist approach or America First approach this moment lead the downfall of Joe Biden and rise of Donald Trump due to his conservative Nationalist approach.

As Russian assets and all dollars were stuck in US & Europe. The major countries remained were China and India. The two dominating powers and epicenter of all of the future trades. The data which I will show here is unabiguous.

• China’s Strategic Reduction in US Dollar: China’s holding of US government debt have fallen to $682.6 Billion which is the lowest level since 2008. Which was done to reduce future sanctions from USA and Ally countries.

• India’s Diversification: India was again one of the biggest holder of US Treasury. But during these Trump’s tariff war India reduced it’s dependence of US Dollar and reduced its portfolio below $190 Billion. It was around $50 billion reduction in a single year. (Look at the image below of Bloomberg article)

Now here comes the interesting part

Rise of the GOLD as a currency reserve:

In few years when Russian assets got frozen by US and its friendly nations; BRICS nations stated plan to de-dollarize their portfolios and a talk of new BRICS currency got viral. Unlike fiat currencies the talks were like to design this currency as a hard asset backed currency. A pilot was launched in late 2025; a currency basket weighted 40% to physical gold and 60% to the local currencies of the BRICS nations.

Below is the composition of BRICS currency

Why store Gold?

this decision by India, Russia and China to store gold rather than US Treasuries is decided by three key factors

1. Sanctions Proofing: This physical gold stored within national borders can not be frozen by US; it provides autonomy to that country. (Source: EconomicTimes & Evrimagaci)
2. Inflation Hedging: the debt level of USA is keep on rising and it is at the highest level and due to political pressure both democrates and republicans are continuously increasing debts. People are suspecting long term purchasing power of the dollar.
3. Financial Leverage: In multipolar world nation’s gold reserve signals its financial strength. China’s expansion of gold storage facilities to foreign banks (for example Cambodia) signals its intent to become a hub for the Asian bullion market which is directly challenging London and New York.

(3) The Metal Rush: Gold & Silver

As the reasons that we discussed above – Geopolitical fear, De-Dollarization, Central banks Buying. These ignited super rush for the precious metal. In January 2026 gold prices has reached record high of around $4900/oz and rushing towards $5000.

Central banks are buying for strategic reasons which creates high “floor” for the market. When prices dips the regular retail buyers steps in and prevents deep corrections. Which has created Gold being the best performing asset in 2025 out performing bonds and equities. (Source.: EconomicTimes & Tribuneindia)

Silver : the Dual Engine Rocket

Now Silver has outperformed Gold also with price surging around 200% to high of around $95/oz. Why?

1. Monetary Demand: Silver is treated as “poor man’s Gold”. those who are feared by Gold market where they feel that Gold is becoming unaffordable then silver is the next logical asset for them.
2. Industrial Demand: Silver is the critical metal essential for Solar Plates. and in every electronic items. The demand of Silver is rising since 2021 due to structural deficit.

(4) The Wealth Paradox of Indian Audience

Indian people store gold, silver and precious metals since ancient times it is in their culture & roots. Indian house holds collectively holds gold of around 25,000 tonnes. Old people mostly never sells their ancestral gold due to emotional attachment. In Indian Weddings one of the most important thing is Jewellery made out of Silver, Gold and other Precious elements. Idea is that bride & groom (mostly focused on bride) to wear jewellery made of Gold & Silver to show the financial security and weath.

But recent rise of silver and gold prices might change the consumer behavior because now middle class people will think twice before purchasing gold and silver due to their prices of Rs. 3,35,00/kg and 1,65,000/per10gram.

The geopolitical war on Russia has also hit hard to the jewellry supply chain. Surat is one of the biggest hub for diamond cutting and polishing. which was heavily relying on Russia’s Alrosa. G7 sanctions have choked off this supply which led to shortage of small natural diamonds

This crisis forced Surat’s manufacturers to shit towards LGD (lab Grown Diamonds). These stones are visually identical to natural diamonds but costs fraction of the price. This accelerated the acceptance of “Artificial Diamond”

GenZ and Millennials:

The GenZ and this upcoming generations are continuously fed by the western ideology (which is sh#t by the way) but hard reality is that they are continuously being distracted by these fake WOKE Culture (Sh#t) on social media.

Hard reality is that this upcoming generation is changing the rituals & traditions, and modernizing it with by Christians’ & Islamic ones. (I am not promoting these but it is hard reality)

So one of the tradition of this gold is also being replaced by Artificial Jewellery which we called generally Imitation jewellery.

(5) Imitation Jewellery – From Fake to Fashion

All of the reasons mentioned above are the prime factors that people around the globe is moving towards “Artificial Jewellery”. The imitation jewelry market in India is exploding and projections indicates that the market will expand at a CAGR of over 11% through 2029 and will double value nearly $10 billion by 2032.

The stigma of wearing “fake” jewelry is evaporating. A new category of “Premium Artificial” or “Demi-fine” jewelry has emerged. There are other several reasons which are mentioned below.

• Manufacturers are using advanced CAD and 3D printing to create intricate molds that were previously possible only by hand
• The use of Gold Plating over copper alloys has blurred line between real and fake, Anti-tarnish coatings, high grade cubic zirconia or synthetic polki is adding a charm to blurr this line. A high quality Rs. 25,000 INR necklace set is now virtually indistinguishable from Rs. 5,00,000 INR gold necklace with naked eye.
• Influencers and Bollywood celebrities are increasingly wearing “artificial jewellery” which validates it as a new style.
• The Destination wedding factor: People choosing destination weddings are avoiding gold jewellery due to travel risks, custom regulations, insurance cost and theft risks. Brides are increasingly opting for imitation sets and Gold jewellery is only treaded as a asset to store in locker of the bank.
• Rajkot became the manufacturing Hub for this imitation jewellry. State government is establishing a massive “Imitation Jewellery Park” spanning 30 hectares

Conclusion:

All of this will lead to Gold & Silver as an asset just like the ancient times and people will start collecting and storing gold & silver but reduce their use in jewellery. Rajkot and Surat will claim the industrial hub of Imitation jewellery. In conclusion people (new generation) will adapt this new norms of “Artificial Jewellery” sooner or later.