Yesterday we discussed the structural shift within the financial markets at the central bank level… but noted that it hasn’t received much attention in the private markets.
The world’s central banks have spent years systematically accumulating gold – even after the Keynesians running these institutions spent decades telling us that gold was a pet rock.
Well, the scope of their accumulation is now clear in the aggregate data — gold has overtaken Treasuries as the top central bank reserve for the first time in thirty years. This speaks volumes… but private investors are largely unaware of this new financial era.
Today I want to walk you through what it means for us — specifically, how the themes we are plugged into at The Phoenician League are positioned to benefit from exactly this kind of environment.
Gold Remonetization
Gold remonetization is the most direct expression of the new financial era we are entering into. If central banks around the world are choosing gold over Treasuries as their primary reserve asset, that is a structural demand driver unlike anything we’ve seen in modern history.
Gold has surged higher over the past 3.5 years, making it one of the best-performing assets in the world. The question I get most often now is whether it’s too late to build a position. And my answer is no.
To start with, 76% of global central banks plan to increase their gold holdings this year… which means there’s a solid floor under gold at the $4,500 price level.
But more importantly, I don’t see gold as an investment. It’s savings. Personally, I don’t buy gold hoping to sell it for more dollars later. I buy gold as a reserve asset for my family with a generational mindset.
Bitcoin – a Rising Monetary Asset
While Bitcoin has been under fire recently, the case for Bitcoin remains strong.
While gold has the central bank bid, Bitcoin has the institutional bid. Sovereign wealth funds are adding it. Public companies are holding it on their balance sheets.
Given Bitcoin’s structural scarcity (21 million supply cap / 95% already mined), the hard reality is that there just aren’t that many bitcoins available out there. That’s why institutions are treating it as a reserve asset.
The logical next step is for Bitcoin to be used as collateral in global trade and sovereign finance. I believe we’ll see that in the years ahead.
Of course, those of us who were early to Bitcoin weren’t interested in it for these reasons. We saw Bitcoin as private money that could provide individuals with true monetary freedom… and we envisioned a world in which the Bitcoin network would surpass Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and all the other fiat payment networks out there in terms of daily transaction volume.
It’s become clear that our original vision will not come to pass. But that doesn’t change the fact that Bitcoin is private money that can be held in self-custody and transacted with at will. In fact, the newer tools and technology have made becoming self-sovereign with Bitcoin far easier – and more powerful – today.
The Energy Renaissance
The world needs reliable baseload power at a scale that intermittent sources simply cannot provide. That’s doubly true as AI data centers drive electricity demand to levels that would have been unthinkable five years ago.
Simply put, nuclear energy is the long-term solution that makes the most sense. That’s why every major technology company has now either signed a nuclear power deal or announced plans to do so.
Uranium sits at the center of this theme, and it’s one of the most compelling supply and demand stories out there right now. Strategic investments around uranium stand to do quite well in the years ahead.
Critical Minerals and Metals – the Key to Reindustrialization
Copper is the metal of electrification. Every data center and every grid expansion requires it. But, like uranium, copper’s supply is structurally constrained.
Then if we include silver and rare earths, the broader critical minerals theme is arguably the most underappreciated investment story of the decade. The world cannot build the infrastructure it needs without these materials, and domestic supply chains are being rebuilt from the ground up… because the era of hyper-globalization is over.
Passive Income from Real Assets
In a world where the risk-free rate is no longer unambiguously risk-free — which is precisely the message central banks are sending with their gold accumulation — income-generating real assets become far more attractive relative to traditional fixed income.
Energy royalties, precious metals royalties, investment real estate, mortgage notes, and infrastructure-adjacent income streams each become more attractive in this climate. The investor who owns cash flows attached to real production is going to be far more resilient than those following the conventional retirement planning model.
The through line across all of these themes is straightforward. Strategic investors are positioning for the new financial era that is emerging — not the one that existed for the past forty years.
The new financial era is creating a world where real assets matter more than financial instruments… where sound money reasserts itself over paper promises as a means of financial reserves… and where energy independence and industrial production are treated as strategic priorities, not afterthoughts.
The breadcrumbs we’ve been following over the past three and a half years have helped us flesh out this narrative. And last week’s data showing that gold has eclipsed US Treasuries on central bank balance sheets all but confirms it.
More to come…
-Joe Withrow
P.S. As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve been working on a new project in the background… and it’s something that I’m quite excited about. Please look for an unscheduled email from me later this week – I’ll release all the details for the very first time then.