Central banks show little sign of reducing their appetite for gold as 2026 enters its final quarter, with Poland and China leading a wave of official accumulation that underscores a structural shift in how sovereign institutions are managing reserve assets. Analysis published by investing research platform BestBrokers, drawing on World Gold Council reserve data and LBMA prices as of 6 October 2026, identifies the ten largest national buyers by tonnage through August.

Poland has added 97.8 tonnes through August, bringing its total reserves to 647.98 tonnes and putting it within 2.2 tonnes of matching its entire 2025 accumulation. The country entered the global top ten gold reserve holders earlier this year. On a per-capita basis, Poland’s holdings now equate to roughly 17.12 grams per citizen, up from the equivalent of five small gold coins per person to six, worth approximately $4,919 at current prices.

China’s buying has accelerated sharply since a slow start to the year. Monthly purchases reached 20.2 tonnes in August, described by BestBrokers as more than twenty times January’s volume. Total accumulation of 80.2 tonnes takes China’s official reserves to 2,386.55 tonnes, the world’s fifth-largest gold stockpile, valued at approximately $318.9 billion at the LBMA PM price of $4,156.40 per troy ounce recorded on 6 October.

The buyers and the sellers

Behind the two headline figures, several emerging-market and Central Asian central banks have also been consistent accumulators. Uzbekistan has added 48.2 tonnes despite two months of minor reductions, Kazakhstan has bought 36.1 tonnes with purchases in every month except January, and the Czech Republic has added gold in every single month, lifting its reserves by 14.2 tonnes to 85.76 tonnes.

The picture is not uniformly one of accumulation. Turkey has reduced its official holdings by 81.6 tonnes through August, including a 60.4-tonne reduction in March alone, making it by far the largest seller of the year. Russia has cut its reserves by 34.2 tonnes and Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund has reduced holdings by 21.9 tonnes. Turkey briefly returned to buying in August, adding 2.9 tonnes, but remains a substantial net seller for the year.

Collectively, the world’s central banks now hold 36,888.97 tonnes of gold, equivalent to roughly 1.19 billion troy ounces.

Market context and reserve policy read-across

The BestBrokers analysis arrives as spot gold hovers near a two-month low of around $4,100 an ounce, under pressure from a stronger US dollar and elevated US Treasury yields. The macro backdrop matters for fintech and capital markets participants: gold pricing feeds directly into commodity derivatives, collateral valuations and reserve-asset modelling across institutional balance sheets.

The broader pattern of central bank buying reflects a multi-year trend that the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements have both noted in recent reserve composition surveys. A sustained shift away from dollar-denominated reserves toward physical gold is a structural consideration for currency risk management, correspondent banking relationships and cross-border payment settlement infrastructure. For payments and digital-asset practitioners specifically, any acceleration of de-dollarisation sentiment among sovereign institutions has implications for the long-term role of dollar-backed stablecoins and CBDC design choices in emerging markets.

Alan Goldberg, lead data analyst at BestBrokers, said: “Gold may be trading like a financial asset, but central banks’ buying decisions reveal something more fundamental: who wants to hold wealth in a form that cannot be printed.”

The analysis covers January to August 2026, based on data reported by central banks to the IMF and published by the World Gold Council. The next quarterly data release will indicate whether the pace of accumulation held into September.

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