Overview

• Spot gold climbed above roughly $3,833 an ounce on Monday, lifting the market value of the Treasury’s 261.5 million ounces to about $1 trillion.
• On the government’s books the hoard remains fixed at the statutory $42.22 per ounce set in 1973, keeping the official value near $11 billion.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has downplayed talk of revaluing the reserves, while a congressional bill would require a comprehensive audit of U.S. gold.
• Analysts cite a weaker dollar, U.S. shutdown risk and geopolitical tension as key drivers, with gold-backed ETFs attracting nearly $5 billion in September.
• Spillovers are broadening, with tokenized gold near a $2.9 billion market cap and the U.S. share of global official reserves around 20%, a multi‑decade low.