BRICS’ plan for a gold-backed “Unit” is running into bigger problems than anticipated — and those problems could stall or even derail the bloc’s bid to create an alternative monetary instrument. What’s going wrong - Political and strategic divisions: Member states are far from aligned. In a surprising November 2024 reversal, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was not trying to abandon the dollar — a sharp pullback from earlier enthusiasm for a BRICS currency. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov framed the broader trend more cautiously: “More and more countries are switching to the use of national currencies in their trade and foreign economic activities.” - Mixed national stances: India has rejected a common-currency model outright, worried about possible U.S. trade reprisals. China has stayed officially silent despite holding the bloc’s largest gold reserves. Brazil’s President Lula showed early enthusiasm but has offered limited concrete backing. These divergent positions create serious coordination problems for any shared monetary project. - Technical, logistical and credibility gaps: The proposed Unit faces verification issues, uneven technical infrastructure, and growing skepticism about its legitimacy. A pilot launched on October 31, 2025 — issuing 100 Units via the International Research Institute for Advanced Systems — raised red flags: documentation reportedly contains spelling errors and incomplete specifications, and major BRICS central banks had not issued comprehensive confirmations of operational systems as of December 2024. (That timing highlights internal inconsistencies and raises credibility questions about the rollout.) - Storage and cost realities: The Unit’s design relies on large gold reserves. Storing 6,000 metric tons would need roughly 300 cubic meters of secure space, with annual maintenance estimated at $579–965 million. Those logistical demands aren’t reflected in current implementation plans. - Economic heterogeneity: BRICS members’ economic systems differ radically — China’s state-controlled system with strict capital controls, India’s democratic framework with moderate restrictions, Russia’s sanctions-hit economy, Brazil’s currency volatility, and South Africa’s structural unemployment — complicating any unified monetary mechanism. Voices from inside the project - Vasily Zhabykin, co-author of the Unit white paper, defended the concept: “The Unit can keep all the wheels turning, unlike most of the other concepts that feature ‘dollar killers,’ etc. We do not want to harm anybody. Our goal is to improve efficiency of currently broken capital and money flows. The Unit is rather the ‘cure for centralized cancer.’” - Russian economist Yevgeny Biryukov framed gold’s appeal bluntly: “For BRICS countries, gold is a tool to protect against sanction risks, a response to the unreliability of traditional partners, and a tangible asset recognised for thousands of years.” What this means for launch prospects Without mechanisms to reconcile political differences, operational gaps, and logistical realities, the BRICS Unit faces steep implementation hurdles. Central banks remain cautious, credibility issues linger, and observers increasingly doubt the project’s readiness. Full implementation now looks unlikely before 2030 — if it happens at all. Why crypto watchers should care A gold-backed BRICS Unit intersects with larger debates about de-dollarization, reserve assets, and alternatives to fiat dominance — topics that matter to stablecoin design, tokenized commodities, and cross-border settlement innovation. Even if the Unit struggles to launch, the push underscores growing interest in non-dollar financial architectures that crypto markets will be watching closely. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news