Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse has drawn attention to a recent relocation of gold reserves by the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, as an illustration of the persistent inefficiencies in conventional financial systems for moving large-scale value across borders.

Between March and August, De Nederlandsche Bank transferred approximately 86 tonnes of gold from storage locations in New York and Ottawa to London. The operation involved gold valued at around $11 billion and formed part of efforts to improve crisis preparedness amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Details of the Gold Relocation

The Dutch central bank said the shift allows greater access to one of the world’s deepest physical gold markets at the Bank of England, where reserves can be traded more readily if required. Gold held in London meets modern international trade standards and is viewed as the most easily deployable in a crisis, unlike holdings previously stored in North America.

Of the total, roughly 59 tonnes—about 70 percent—were handled through sales in New York followed by equivalent purchases in London, meaning the metal itself never left the ground. More than 27 tonnes were physically transported, first to the bank’s facility in Zeist in the Netherlands and then onward to London in a form that avoided the need to remelt bars.

Following the changes, the geographical distribution of the bank’s reserves became more balanced. London now accounts for 32.1 percent, the Zeist cash centre holds 30.8 percent, and New York and Ottawa each hold 18.5 percent. The bank’s total gold holdings stood at 612.4 tonnes, valued at the equivalent of roughly $84 billion at the end of 2025.

De Nederlandsche Bank Governor Olaf Sleijpen stated that the relocation improves the tradability of the reserves. He noted that while the bank does not expect to need the gold in an emergency, the step strengthens resilience and preparedness.

Garlinghouse on Traditional Settlement Friction

Garlinghouse referenced the multi-month process in a public post, describing it as a reminder of how finance continues to operate. He noted that around 70 percent of the gold never physically moved and was instead sold in New York and repurchased in London.

He compared the episode with Germany’s earlier gold repatriation, in which the Bundesbank took four years to move 674 tonnes of gold valued at about $36 billion at the time from vaults in Paris and New York, completing the process in 2017.

Garlinghouse observed that in the intervening period crypto assets expanded from a $1.5 billion experiment into a $2.7 trillion asset class with supporting financial infrastructure and liquidity. He contrasted this growth with the continued reliance on methods of value transfer that resemble those used decades earlier, even as other technologies advanced rapidly in areas such as autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and global satellite internet.

He argued that blockchain-based systems provide a model for storing and transferring value instantly and securely at lower cost than traditional channels, without the need to physically relocate the underlying assets in every case.

Tokenized Assets and Settlement Speed

Tokenized gold already trades on the XRP Ledger, where digital representations of the metal can change ownership while the physical bullion remains in custody. Cumulative trading volume in tokenized gold on the network has surpassed $1 million. The broader tokenized real-world asset activity on the ledger has expanded significantly, offering a settlement layer measured in seconds rather than days or months.

Supporters of the XRP Ledger have noted that digital assets can combine attributes associated with gold, such as neutrality independent of any single bank, company or country, with the speed and lower cost of blockchain transfers. Tokenization enables ownership changes and additional financial applications without requiring physical movement of the underlying asset each time.

The Dutch central bank’s operation demonstrates that traditional finance already frequently transfers economic ownership without relocating metal. Blockchain approaches seek to achieve similar outcomes with greater speed, transparency and programmability while physical custody, audits and legal protections remain necessary for the underlying gold.