BRICS countries launch gold-backed digital currency "Unit"

According to Mars Finance, on December 8, citing Intellinews and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Economic Strategies ((IRIAS)), the BRICS group has launched a working prototype of a gold-backed trade currency called “Unit.” This is a digital transaction tool supported by a reserve basket consisting of 40% physical gold and 60% BRICS national currencies, with equal weighting among the Brazilian real, Chinese yuan, Indian rupee, Russian ruble, and South African rand. The pilot project was initiated by IRIAS, which issued 100 Units on October 31, each initially pegged to 1 gram of gold. Although the initiative has not yet become official policy, its existence is a direct step toward de-dollarization. The value of “Unit” is designed to fluctuate daily according to the performance of its component currencies against gold. As of December 4, market volatility had adjusted the value of the reserve basket to the equivalent of 98.23 grams of gold, effectively making each Unit worth 0.9823 grams of gold.