Gold hits another record, ECB NOT going to have Bitcoin reserve

Gold and Euro notes (Pixabay photo)

Gold has hit another record high in many currencies:

January 31, 2025

Jan 31 (Reuters) – Gold prices scaled an all-time high on Friday, briefly touching the $2,800 mark, as market participants rushed to the safe-haven asset after U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his tariff threats.

Spot gold steadied at $2,795.52 per ounce by 11:18 GMT, after hitting a record peak of $2,800.99 earlier in the session. Prices rose more than 6% for the month and 1% for the week. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gold-hits-record-high-trump-tariff-worries-mount-2025-01-31/

While the price of gold will rise and fall in comparison to the US dollar, according to various scriptures (cf. Daniel 11:37-43) that dollar will be worthless years before gold is.

As far as gold goes, notice something from my latest book available at Amazon Kindle: Unintended Consequences and Donald Trump’s Presidency: Is Donald Trump Fulfilling Biblical, Islamic, Greco-Roman Catholic, Buddhist, and other America-Related Prophecies? as well as Amazon print Unintended Consequences and Donald Trump’s Presidency: Is Donald Trump Fulfilling Biblical, Islamic, Greco-Roman Catholic, Buddhist, and other America-Related Prophecies?:

It may be of interest to note that back in the 1970s Europe was looking for a gold-backed currency.[i] European central banks have, overall (there have been sales too by the European central banks), been accumulating gold since, and some in 2024 believe that the Europeans are still planning on having some type of gold-backing (or at least implied) of a European currency.[ii]

Since many are now questioning the role of the USA dollar as the world’s reserve currency, more are looking into other currencies as well as gold.

Gold will set records in U.S. dollar terms.

[i]^{Nieuwenhuijs J. Europe Has Been Preparing A Global Gold Standard Since The 1970s. SeekingAlpha.com, July 16, 2020}

[ii]^{Nieuwenhuijs J. Europe Is Finalizing Preparations for a Gold Standard. ActivistPost.com, November 9, 2024}

(Thiel B. Unintended Consequences and Donald Trump’s Presidency: Is Donald Trump Fulfilling Biblical, Islamic, Greco-Roman Catholic, Buddhist, and other America-Related Prophecies? Nazarene Books, 2025)

And we gold already hit a record price since that book came out less than two weeks ago.

What about Bitcoin? While the Bible does seem to point to the existence of some type of digital currency in the end times per Revelation 13:16-18, nothing like a decentralized Bitcoin makes sense to fulfill that prophecy.

Although US President Donald Trump mentioned a Bitcoin reserve, Europe has said it does not intend to do that:

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde hinted that the path for further rate cuts is clear, as financing conditions remain restrictive amid an economy that stagnated in the fourth quarter.

The ECB cut its three key interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday in an unanimous decision, as widely expected by market participants, bringing the deposit rate—the benchmark for Frankfurt’s monetary policy—to 2.75%.

The main takeaways from the press conference were support for further monetary easing and the dismissal of Bitcoin as a reserve asset on the ECB’s balance sheet. https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/01/30/lagarde-hints-at-further-ecb-rate-cuts-rules-out-bitcoin-reserves

Instead of Bitcoin, could Europe the continent looking at gold backing for its own currency still today?

Yes!

Have the Europeans been planning on a gold standard of some sort to push aside the US dollar since the 1970s? Four years ago, Jan Nieuwenhuijs says it has:

Europe Has Been Planning A Gold Standard Since The 1970s

Research reveals that European central banks have prepared a new international gold standard.

The U.S. opposed the end of the two-tier system, because this would increase the official price of gold and put it back in the center of the international monetary system.

Europe is well prepared for a gold standard.

The trend in Asia is also increasingly against dollar dominance and in favor of gold.

Research reveals that European central banks have prepared a new international gold standard. Since the 1970s, policies that paved the way for an equitable and durable monetary system have gradually been implemented.

In my view, the current fiat international monetary system is ending- …

One of the reasons the euro was created was to counter dollar dominance. Many decades before it was launched, Western Europe started to integrate. … we know the U.S. opposed monetary cooperation in Europe, for the simple reason it didn’t want competition for the dollar hegemony. Below are excerpts from a telephone call between U.S. National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, William Simon, on March 14, 1973.

Kissinger: … I basically have only one view right now which is to do as much as we can to prevent a united European position without showing our hand. … I don’t think a unified European monetary system is in our interest. ..

The “European solution” was to fix the exchange rates of the EEC’s currencies, and float as a bloc against the dollar. The “common float” would enhance trade within Europe and show the world Europe’s unity and leadership. This was not in the interest of the U.S. According to Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs, Paul Volcker, the European solution was a euphemism for saying:

“Let’s leave the United States out of the world and go our independent course.”

Furthermore, the EEC took the stance that central banks should be able to buy and sell gold at a marked-related price, both among themselves and on the free market. …

The French, and some of its allies, wanted gold’s importance to increase in the international monetary system and stabilize its price “at a later date.” Which boils down to a gold standard. The Federal Reserve favored a continuation of the two-tier market, which in practice meant gold’s demonetization.

Right after the two-tier system was cancelled in 1978, eight European countries launched the European Monetary System (EMS). …

Remarkably, what I discovered is that European central banks started selling gold in the 1990s to equalize their gold reserves relative to other nations. A new gold standard would be equitable if all gold was distributed evenly, which is what European central banks have been managing. …

The Chinese government aims to elevate the amount of private gold per capita, to bring it more in line to the global average. China’s gold strategy matches Europe’s gold strategy in terms of equalizing reserves (next to the obvious reasons to own gold in the first place).

From previous research, I know approximately how much private gold is in India, China, France, Italy, and Germany. When I combine the private and official gold reserves of these countries, and compare it to GDP per capita, these measures appear to be quite close to each other. …

Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Austria have repatriated gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bank of England. These countries show to assign greater importance to gold as a reserve asset versus fiat currencies, and their trust in the U.S. and U.K. as custodians has waned. In the words of the Polish central bank:

central banks usually strive to diversify their gold storage locations, … to limit geopolitical risk, the consequence of which could be, for example, loss of access or limitation of the free disposal of gold reserves kept abroad.

Storing gold on domestic soil is safer than abroad, but having some of it in trading hubs such as London allows the gold to be used more easily for, i.e., swaps and international settlement. According to the German central bank their repatriation scheme had three objectives: cost efficiency, security, and liquidity. …

European central banks are confessing their own paper money system is failing. They can’t say this explicitly because it would cause instant panic in financial markets, but how much more obvious can they make it?

In my opinion, these central banks are alluding to a new monetary system based on gold.

Conclusion

We have established that, since the 1970s, Europe has been countering the dollar hegemony and wanted gold back in the center of a new “equitable and durable system taking into account the interests of the developing countries.” Subsequently, they have equalized official gold reserves internationally, strategically allocated their gold, upgraded their gold to current industry standards, and are now promoting gold as the “perfect piggybank” and as “protection against high inflation.”

The trend in Asia is also increasingly against dollar dominance and in favor of gold. …

Although it’s clear that Europe and other nations are prepared for a new monetary system that incorporates gold, it’s unknown how this system will look like. 07/16/20 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4358798-europe-preparing-global-gold-standard-since-1970s

Before going further, let me state that there is a YouTube video that disagrees with this article. Essentially it says that although Europe may have wanted to go to a gold standard, it has deviated too much over the years to be considered serious about it.

Yet, I maintain that Europe will have some type of at least implied gold backing of its currency–and I have been writing that for over a decade–and still stick to that because of various biblical prophecies involving the King of the North Beast who will arise in Europe.

Now notice a more recent report on Europe and a Gold Standard:

Europe Is Finalizing Preparations for a Gold Standard

November 9, 2024

Countries outside the eurozone but inside the European Union, i.e., those that one day might join the eurozone—like Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, are positioning for a new gold standard.

To prepare for a monetary system based on gold, they are buying gold to equalize their reserves to the eurozone average. This balancing of gold reserves in Europe is a key topic I have written about extensively.

And now, additional evidence of these plans has come out, this time from Konrad Raczkowski, former Minister of Finance of Poland.

Raczkowski recently argued official gold reserves in Europe must be evenly distributed relative to GDP, which “in the near future … will be the new gold standard.” His statement adds to a vast body of proof regarding Europe’s preparations for a gold standard. …

the United States, issuer of the world reserve currency, has arrived at a critical phase in its debt spiral …

Most of the largest central banks have a “Plan B” when their paper policy goes haywire, and this backup plan is, to a certain extent, coordinated between them. The first seeds of Plan B were planted by European central bankers and politicians in the 1970s. … Plan B, of course, is gold, …

During the demise of Bretton Woods, it was clear that several European countries wanted to switch to a gold standard. They couldn’t pull it off at the time, partly because the United States was using its military strength to block such efforts. …

The French central banks suggests that gold is “the ultimate store of value.” According to former President of the German central bank, Jens Weidmann, gold is “the bedrock of stability for the international monetary system.” And a member of the Board of the Bank of Finland called gold “a genuinely global means of payment [and] a safe haven against both economic and political risks.” …

As wars rage on and government debt levels keep rising, there will come a point of inflection. Given the pace at which central banks keep buying gold since the war in Ukraine, we may conclude they foresee the end of the dollar hegemony is nearing. https://activistpost.com/2024/11/europe-is-finalizing-preparations-for-a-gold-standard.html

Yes, the Europeans and others are looking at gold as a way to protect themselves from the US dollar as well as to at least indirectly back other currencies.

The continental European gold reserves exceed that of the USA (see European Gold-The Plain Truth).

The Continuing Church of God is pleased to announce this sermonette from its ContinuingCOG channel:

15:07

Bitcoin … as good as gold?

“Bringing you news and analysis of world events in light of Bible prophecy.” This is the mandate of the Continuing Church of God. The world events Dr. Thiel will focus on today will be the recent record rise in the value of Bitcoin to over $100,000.00 The are several questions that will be addressed. Among them are: Will Bitcoin replace gold? Is Bitcoin as valuable as gold? Will nations just accumulate Bitcoin, will they just accumulate gold, or will they accumulate both? Will governments embrace Bitcoin? What about the US dollar? Will it be replaced by Bitcoin? Is it possible that the US Dollar will still be the world’s reserve currency well into the Great Tribulation? How about Bitcoin? Is something similar to Bitcoin prophesied in the Bible? Dr. Thiel addresses these world news items in light of Bible prophecy. He uses scriptures that address the status of the US Dollar’s value during the Great Tribulation as well as the use of a Bitcoin, like crypto currency, by the Beast of Revelation 13. Is it possible that both gold and Bitcoin will be useless as a hope for salvation? Dr. Thiel gives the prophetic answer to that question at the end of this video.