BRICS nations are buying gold for three reasons: to escape the dollar, protect reserves from sanctions, and hedge against a debt spiral they didn’t create. The 2022 freezing of Russia’s $300 billion in Western-held reserves made the case better than any policy paper could. Dollar-denominated reserves can vanish overnight. Gold cannot. Gold is trading near $4,850 per ounce as of April 2026 — up over 40% in twelve months — and BRICS nations are still buying faster than ever. Most investors assume the story here is price. It isn’t. It’s what the buying itself reveals about how the world’s largest emerging economies now ... (full story)