Gold is now the top U.S. export (numismaticnews.net)

135 points by iamnothere 4 hours ago

jpollock 2 hours ago

I wonder how much of that are foreign central banks moving their gold reserves out of the USA... France, The Netherlands and Germany have been moving gold.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyn8q8gqxo

morsch 2 hours ago

France completely exited New York, the Netherlands roughly halved what they've stored there. That was in 2026. They didn't physically ship any of it, they sold it and rebought in Europe.

Germany moved 111t from New York in 2016, and, afaict, nothing since then. There's still 1236t left.

Italy also keeps over 1000t in New York (no plans for repatriation).

JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago

> They didn't physically ship any of it, they sold it and rebought in Europe

This is effectively outsourcing that process to the banks.

minraws 2 hours ago

iamnothere 2 hours ago

It’s specifically nonmonetary gold, so that’s a separate issue unless those nations were holding non-reserve gold here.

Although a sibling commenter mentioned that they moved their gold by selling it and rebuying it in Europe. If that gold qualifies as non-reserve gold after sale, and is moved out after sale to (for example) China, then perhaps?

progval 2 hours ago

Do they count as export if the owner doesn't change?

codethief 2 hours ago

If central banks sell their gold in the US and buy new gold abroad (to save themselves physically transporting the gold across the ocean[0]), I suspect that the demand this creates for gold abroad will ultimately cause US gold exports to rise, too.

[0]: See the link in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134172

mqus 2 hours ago

From the article: > The U.S. government is still reporting that its gold reserves are unchanged, so these exports look to be coming from current mine output and recycling operations.

Not sure if "The U.S governments gold reserves" also includes the ones from other countries though.

jandrewrogers 16 minutes ago

The article is about the export of mined gold. The US produces ~160 tons of gold annually from domestic mining operations.

rkagerer 21 minutes ago

That's what I thought too but the article says it's mostly fresh mine output (and recycled).

dyauspitr 2 hours ago

Probably all of it.

csomar 2 hours ago

I don't think that counts as exports although they could be selling in the US and buying locally where traders move the gold (then it will be counted as exports).

samudrijan 2 hours ago

So not actually productive exports. Just draining the coffers as the criminals in charge loot the commons.

JumpCrisscross an hour ago

> majority of gold exports are going to Switzerland, almost certainly to the refiners there

Sounds like a refining bottleneck.

Globally, “refining capacity is operating at near-total utilization” [1]. That is particularly true in America, where refiners are “limiting purchases” [2] and “turning away new clients” [3].

Global demand for gold—lead by China—is surging. That, in turn, made gold “the most-developed commodity over 2020-25” with “the highest [new] mine count each year during the period” [4].

Where are those mines opening? In “Australia, Canada and the US,” which “accounted for the largest share of new gold production.”

[1] https://www.skillings.net/gold-refining-report-global-standa...

[2] https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/metal-refiners-t...

[3] https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/refining-pipelin...

[4] https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insight...

jfengel 14 minutes ago

Huh. I'd have thought that capacity would rise with ore supply. It is "free money". Why leave it in the ground?

Sounds as if there is a point at which digging and refining is more expensive than buyers are willing to pay, so when demand goes up it takes time to expand supply.

erkt 13 minutes ago

With the proper facilities, isn’t it already economical to transmute mercury to gold via neutron bombardment?

asphodele 9 minutes ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestake_Mine_(South_Dakota)

"The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine (8,000 feet or 2,438 m) located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002, it was the largest and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. The mine produced more than forty million troy ounces (43,900,000 oz; 1,240,000 kg) of gold during its lifetime. This is about 2,500 cubic feet (71 m3) or a volume of gold roughly equal to 18,677 US gallons.

...

In 1876, settlers Fred and Moses Manuel, Alex Engh, and Hank Harney discovered the Homestake deposit during the Black Hills Gold Rush. The Black Hills had been guaranteed to the Lakota Nation by the Fort Laramie Treaty, but the land was stolen for its gold."

When the illegal miners moved in on the Black Hills, Crazy Horse would on occasion raid them to sieze their gold, after which he would re-bury it.

XCSme 2 hours ago

I thought it was tokens

JumpCrisscross 17 minutes ago

I think those count as services. Gold is the most-exported good.

XCSme 15 minutes ago

Title doesn't mention good specifically.

How are service exports counted? All together? Or not considered exports?

Aachen 36 minutes ago

Would have thought advertising and transaction fees myself, but the article says it's usually oil (ok I should have thought of that), "pharmaceuticals" (mkay, seems cheaper to make elsewhere so that's a bit strange), or aircraft and their parts (wut? How many aircraft can the world need that it commonly tops the export chart of the wealthiest country?!)

cpgxiii 21 minutes ago

> How many aircraft can the world need that it commonly tops the export chart of the wealthiest country?

Airliners and military aircraft are expensive. Consider that nearly the entire aircraft production capacity of Boeing and Lockheed-Martin as well as the engine production capacity of GE and P&W are booked for years to come. Also, unlike Airbus which has multiple final assembly plants across the world, Boeing only does final assembly in the US.

JumpCrisscross 16 minutes ago

Goods versus services. We tend to use the word “exports” to refer to only the former in America, which is anachronistic.

XCSme 31 minutes ago

I mean, wouldn't that make sense given the market caps?

So many trillion-dollar valued AI-focused companies.

_ache_ 2 hours ago

If you think that USD value will drop sharply, it's a logical thing to do.

f001 2 hours ago

It’s more of losing trust in the US. If they don’t believe they’ll have access to it when needed or if they believe it might be seized for whatever made up reason, makes sense to move it somewhere they’ll have control over it.

JumpCrisscross an hour ago

Probably not. This is non-monetary gold mostly going off to refiners. Not bullion.

bigmadshoe an hour ago

Why would the dropping value of the USD be a factor in selling gold? Doesn't holding gold hedge against exactly that?

I think the real reason is that they're afraid of political instability in the US that may result in 1) an inability to retrieve their gold, or 2) the government confiscating it.

declan_roberts 2 hours ago

I don't quite follow. Countries hold gold to protect their own currency from devaluation, not bc they expected it to become stronger against a dollar.

_ache_ an hour ago

If you have USD and you think it will value less soon, you change it to gold instead. If you own gold in the US and think that the USD value will drop very low, you move out of the USD fearing gold retention.

ericmay 17 minutes ago

jack_pp 2 hours ago

How does holding gold protect from devaluation? No one has currency backed by gold any more.

scotty79 an hour ago

scotty79 an hour ago

If you sell something in US, you get paid in US dollars. If you believe dollars soon won't be worth the paper they are printed on, you immediately spend dollars on something that has durable value and take it with you instead.

throwawayffffas an hour ago

It's more like if you think Trump is likely to say, actually that's my gold.

IAmGraydon 2 hours ago

They think the Trump administration will confiscate it.

Dumblydorr 2 hours ago

Whatever would give them that idea…

legitster an hour ago

The article points out the primary source is recycling operations.

This is not some big currency or export program. It's most likely Grandma and Grandpa hawking their jewelry.

The cash for gold industry in the US is absolutely massive and growing. Most of it is fueled by boomers dumping their assets into gold and silver - and then cashing it out when times get worse.

setopt an hour ago

That’s not just a US boomer thing, you’ll see the same in many Arabic countries for example, across generations.

manlymuppet 2 hours ago

How much of this is exports being ranked by value, and gold, even a little being worth a lot, quickly becomes the “top” export despite being relatively small in absolute quantity terms?

ashdksnndck 2 hours ago

Was anyone confused by the title and thought we are exporting more gold in volume or weight than other products? It seems obvious that gold must be winning on value.

ceroxylon 2 hours ago

From the article:

>That’s not just because the price of gold reached record high prices. In February 2026, the tons of gold exported may have set an all-time record.

manlymuppet 2 hours ago

    > Normally, America’s highest value exports are either oil, pharmaceuticals, or aircraft and their parts.  Not now.  Starting in October 2025, the value of gold exports has topped all other categories almost every month.

From what I’m reading, the article does rank exports by value.

Relative to quantity, the price of gold might have less to do with why it’s the top of the list, but gold being more valuable in general might still be the main reason it’s at the top.

For example:

June

Oil at $1 a barrel

Gold at $10 a ton

100 barrels of oil exported - $100

9 tons of gold exported - $90

By value, oil is the top export.

——-

July

Oil at $1 a barrel

Gold at $9 a ton

100 barrels of oil exported - $100

12 tons of gold exported - $108

By value, gold is now the top export.

——-

Even though the price of gold dropped—-the inverse of our current situation to illustrate an extreme—-the general higher price of gold is more relevant to the ranking than its quantity increase.

maxldn an hour ago

bigmadshoe an hour ago

Exports are typically ranked in dollars, not in kilograms. Do we think about the weight of GPUs a country exports or their value?

metalman an hour ago

ton for ton the US top export is CO², and it's largest import is O², or was, if it has slipped then that is the main reason behind the export of ag, as all of it is tied to actual industrial capacity

EA-3167 2 hours ago

I doubt the veracity of this article. All previous metal exports from the US, including and not limited to gold, came third in exports as of mid-year.

https://logisticsmaterial.com/trade/americas-biggest-exports...

edit: A better source that uses Census BEA data: https://ustradesignals.com/statistics/exports-by-industry

and says the same thing.

edit2: A third source using different data saying the same thing. https://tradeint.com/insights/us-export-data/#elementor-toc_...

ceejayoz 2 hours ago

Why'd you trust this particular article?

https://imgur.com/a/bAbAFru

iAMkenough 13 minutes ago

All of these links are from publications I've never heard of, and have a hard time independently verifying their credibility.

For instance, TradeInt advertises it is trusted by Samsung, but I can't find any record of Samsung utilizing TradeInt for anything. TradeInt advertises a 5-star rating on platforms like Product Hunt (YC S14), yet the person who created the listing created their account when TradeInt launched and has no followers or other activity since 2024.

They all appear to be blog spam, from my perspective.

thisisthenewme 2 hours ago

The article that you posted seems to be LLM slop with no references to their claims and the article in the post references data from bea.gov so :shrug:

throwawayffffas an hour ago

Straight up read God.

leopoldcongo 2 hours ago

All the gold was stolen from Africa or South America by the Europeans no?

ralph84 an hour ago

The biggest gold mines by far are in the US, Russia, and other former Soviet republics.

throw73847939 2 hours ago

Gold is tiny compared to oil and other energy exports. I would more watch for drop in energy exports, and how US is screwing its partners right now!