Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has seized on the Dutch central bank’s $11 billion gold move. He says global finance still shifts value the way it did in the 1940s.
De Nederlandsche Bank sent roughly 86 tonnes of gold to London between March and August. The metal came from New York and Ottawa.
Ripple CEO Says the Gold Move Proves Crypto’s Case
The Dutch central bank sold about 59 tonnes in New York. It then bought the same quantity back in London. Nearly 70% of the transfer was therefore a paper exercise.
Only 27 tonnes actually crossed the Atlantic. New York now holds 18.5% of Dutch reserves, down from 31.3%. London’s share climbed to 32.1%. DNB holds 612.4 tonnes in total, worth 72.2 billion euros at the end of 2025.
Garlinghouse contrasted that friction with crypto’s past decade. He said the sector grew from a $1.5 billion experiment into a $2.7 trillion asset class.
He also revisited Germany’s 2013 repatriation. The Bundesbank needed four years to bring home 674 tonnes worth roughly $36 billion.
Old Rails Still Carry the World’s Money
DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen framed the relocation as crisis preparation, not distrust of Washington. London handles far more physical gold trade than Ottawa.
“With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves. We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.”
Sleijpen, DNB
The mechanics still support Garlinghouse’s complaint. Banks settle value through correspondent queues, while stablecoins clear payments instantly. SWIFT switched on its own blockchain ledger in July, yet final settlement runs on older rails.
Garlinghouse made a similar point after the Mastercard deal in June. XRP trades near $1.40, down 3,65% on the day but up 21% over three months.
The Bank for International Settlements, owned by central banks, tested the XRP Ledger this month. Its prototype anchored official statistics in three to five seconds. Verification took one to two.
So can crypto do better? On speed, those numbers say yes. On trust, not yet. Central banks want vaults, insurance and legal finality.
Sleijpen’s decision to move gold to London was driven by the necessity of crisis-era tradability, a form of structural security that digital assets are still working to replicate.
Source: BeInCrypto
