Why Some Countries Are Moving Gold Out of New York

The biggest pile of gold in America isn't at Fort Knox. The largest known store of monetary gold on Earth sits 80 feet (24 m) under a street in Lower Manhattan, in the New York Fed's gold vault, and nearly all of it isn't America's. Why do Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and other central banks keep their gold reserves at 33 Liberty Street, and why are some now moving it to the Bank of England in London? We go down into the vault, back to World War II and Bretton Woods, through the 2025 transatlantic gold rush, and into the quiet moves of 2026. Chapters 0:00 Intro: Not Fort Knox 0:33 Cold Open 1:04 The Vault Under Liberty Street 2:58 How the Gold Got to Manhattan 4:55 The World's Other Vaults 6:30 The Great Gold Rush of 2025 8:33 Who's Taking Their Gold Home? Sources (numbers match the [n] markers on screen) [1] Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "Gold Vault" (read Oct 5, 2026): https://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefe... [2] De Nederlandsche Bank, "DNB improves tradability of gold reserves" (Sept 2, 2026): https://www.dnb.nl/en/general-news/pr... More sources Federal Reserve, International Summary Statistics, Table 3.13 (Sept 30, 2026): https://www.federalreserve.gov/data/i... US Treasury, Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve (Aug 31, 2026): https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datas... Bank of England, Gold, and gold custody statistics: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/gold Bank of England, Monetary Policy Report press conference transcript (Feb 6, 2025) Deutsche Bundesbank, gold transfers completed ahead of schedule (Aug 23, 2017): https://www.bundesbank.de/en/press/pr... Banca d'Italia, Gold reserves: https://www.bancaditalia.it/compiti/r... Banque de France, 2025 results (Apr 9, 2026): https://www.banque-france.fr/en/news/... World Gold Council, US tariffs and the gold market (Feb 27, 2025) and why central banks are moving their gold (Sept 2026): https://www.gold.org Federal Reserve History, Bretton Woods and the end of gold convertibility; US State Department Office of the Historian, the Nixon shock US Mint, Fort Knox Bullion Depository; Treasury Inspector General, OIG-26-002 (Dec 12, 2025) White House fact sheet on reciprocal tariffs (Sept 5, 2025) UK Supreme Court, [2021] UKSC 57 Reporting: Reuters (Jan 29 and Mar 31, 2025), Financial Times, CNBC (Aug 8, 2025), Swissinfo (Sept 1, 2025), Fortune/AFP (Aug 11, 2025), Fox Business (Feb 2025), Kitco and Euronews (Jan-Feb 2026), Euronews (Aug 17, 2026) Music Licensed from Storyblocks: "Resonance Control" by CloudSystem; "Documentary Deep Dive" by Jon Presstone; "Meditative State" by Boris Skalsky; "Spectral Ambient Piano" by gushito; "Phantom Traces"; "Fragile Emotional Awakening" by Giuseppe Rizzo. Footage and photo credits Illustrative footage, ambience and sound effects: Storyblocks. 3D city views: Google Earth (data providers credited on screen). Maps: satellite imagery © MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors. Building outlines © OpenStreetMap contributors. Vault photos and the Gold Vault page: © 2026 Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Content from the New York Fed subject to the Terms of Use at newyorkfed.org. Photos cropped. Federal Reserve Bank of New York building: Ajay Suresh, CC BY 4.0 (cropped): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Coat check door: Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Cloakroom counter: Taw, CC BY-SA 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Theatre cloakroom: MBH, CC BY 4.0 (cropped): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Cloakroom queue: Rijksmuseum (CC0). Fort Knox, 1939: Library of Congress (public domain). Fort Knox postcard: Tichnor Bros., Boston Public Library (public domain). President Nixon's address of Aug 15, 1971: Richard Nixon Presidential Library / National Archives (public domain). Documents shown: Federal Reserve Bank of New York; De Nederlandsche Bank. #Gold #CentralBanks #FederalReserve