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Marker 1
On June 1, 2026, the Central Bank of Nigeria published its 132-page Payments System Vision 2028, which acknowledges what the eNaira's adoption data has indicated for years. The document reports approximately ₦22 billion ($16 million) in cumulative eNaira transactions since the October 2021 launch, characterizes adoption as "slow," and identifies "limited stakeholder engagement and buy-in in design" as a core barrier. Its proposed remedy is to reposition the eNaira around G2P (government-to-person) channels—social welfare payments, civil servant salaries, pensions. The eNaira will survive by compelled government disbursement rather than voluntary consumer adoption. The issuing central bank now documents the gap the marker named.
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Marker 2
On June 2, 2026, the European Central Bank's International Role of the Euro report confirmed that gold has surpassed US Treasuries as the world's second-largest reserve asset—the first time since 1996—at roughly 27% of global central bank reserve assets, up from about 20% at the end of 2024, behind dollar-denominated holdings at 42%. Gold fell roughly 16% through Q2 from January's all-time high; central banks bought into the decline. The marker's directional claim is that gold, not Bitcoin, is the beneficiary of de-dollarization pressure. The reserve data now says this directly.
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Marker 3
The IMF's COFER release of July 1 put the renminbi at 1.99% of allocated global reserves for Q1 2026—up from 1.95% a quarter earlier, still below its 2022 peak near 2.8%. Over the same half-year, CIPS settled ¥100.9 trillion ($14.7 trillion) in cross-border renminbi payments, annualizing to roughly ¥202 trillion, about 12% above 2025's full-year total. On SWIFT's measure the renminbi carried 8.00% of global trade finance in June, second to the dollar at 81.16% and ahead of the euro at 5.59%—though that series is volatile, and May's print was 5.51%, below the euro. The renminbi's share of SWIFT payments overall held between roughly 2.6% and 3.1% through the first half, fifth or sixth place depending on the month. Settlement and trade-finance use of the renminbi continue to run at multiples of its reserve weight. The two series have not reconverged.
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Marker 4
Stablecoin supply contracted in June 2026—down $7.7 billion in the month, the largest monthly decline since the Terra collapse of May 2022—while adjusted transaction volume reached a record $1.79 trillion. Total supply, which peaked above $320 billion in April and May, stood near $314 billion in late June, with USDT at roughly $186 billion and USDC near $75 billion, together 83% of the market and more than 99% of it dollar-denominated. The two instruments have split by function. USDC carried about 70% of adjusted volume on a quarter of the supply—the instrument institutions turn over—while USDT sits in large, slow-moving balances as the de facto dollar savings instrument of emerging markets, carrying by one analysis nearly three-quarters of retail-sized transactions on roughly 7% of its supply. Supply fell. Use did not.
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Marker 5
The World Gold Council revised its estimate of first-quarter 2026 central bank gold purchases from 244 tonnes to 57 tonnes—a 77% reduction, after reclassifying flows from the official sector to the over-the-counter market. The Q2 reading cited the original figure. Second-quarter purchases then came in at 288.9 tonnes, a record for a second quarter and 62% above Q2 2025, with central banks buying into a 16% quarterly price decline—the steepest in a decade—from gold's January 28 all-time high of $5,589. The half-year total of 345 tonnes is the lowest first half since 2022. Both facts belong in the record: the measured pace of accumulation slowed sharply in Q1, and the official sector then bought a record second-quarter volume into falling prices.
