The BRICS+ bloc is piloting a gold-anchored settlement instrument, referred to for now as the “Unit”, that uses a 40% physical gold and 60% BRICS-currency basket to value cross-border settlement without replacing national currencies.
Researchers launched the pilot on in October 2025 inside the 10-member BRICS+ group listed as Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE, followed by a Unit prototype on December 8.
One account described the initial rollout as a pilot with only 100 units issued.
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The Unit is framed as a neutral settlement tool that reduces reliance on the US dollar for settlement between BRICS economies, rather than a replacement for domestic currencies. It is described as administered by IRIAS and built as a digital platform using “transparent blockchain technology.”
The reserve basket is specified as 40% physical gold and 60% BRICS currencies, with that 60% described as five equal weights of 12% each across real, yuan, rupee, ruble, and rand. One operational description says basket reserves collateralize “fractal issuing nodes” that mint UNIT tokens, with features including local reserve custody, basket replication, and proportional issuance, and rails named Cardano, mBridge, BRICS Clear, and “other sovereign rails.”
The Unit is “pegged” to an equivalent value of 1 gram of gold, while also described as adjusting daily based on constituent currency exchange rates against gold, implying a daily recalculation rather than a fixed conversion rate.
Why gold is central here
A quoted Russian economist, Yevgeny Biryukov, described gold as protection against “sanction risks” and “a tangible asset recognised for thousands of years.”
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BRICS member states’ have combined gold reserves exceeding 6,000 tonnes, led by Russia at 2,336 tonnes, China at 2,298 tonnes, and India at 880 tonnes, with Brazil adding 16 tonnes in September 2025 to reach 145.1 tonnes.
The bloc reportedly controls about 50% of global gold production via members and partners, with China producing 380 tonnes in 2024 and Russia 340 tonnes. The World Gold Council figure cited says central banks bought more than 1,000 tonnes per year from 2022–2024, described as the longest sustained gold-buying period in modern history.
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As of November 2025, the US dollar was used in about 89% of currency exchanges and represented 56% of all foreign currency reserves, while IMF data cited says the dollar was 58% of global FX reserves at end-2024 versus 65% ten years earlier.
However, even supportive descriptions stress the Unit is not yet adopted by BRICS central banks and that expansion would require coordinated reserves, unified rules, and interoperability across national payment networks, plus agreed approaches to volatility and stress events.
For now, the Unit reads more like a settlement rail prototype with very loud marketing.
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