China Steps Away From the Dollar as Bitcoin Rises Into the Spotlight

The global financial order is shifting fast—and the U.S. dollar may be losing its grip. China’s currency internationalization drive is accelerating, global payments in yuan are soaring, and the cracks in the dollar’s dominance are becoming too large to ignore.

While Beijing bets on its own currency, Bitcoin is quietly emerging as the unexpected wild card in the race for the next reserve asset. For years, headlines speculated about whether the yuan could ever challenge the greenback. That moment may no longer be hypothetical.

According to China’s central bank, nearly 30% of all Chinese goods and services trade is now conducted in yuan, with some speculating that this figure might even jump to 50% when financial flows are included, such as Belt and Road investments.

The rise of the Yuan currency comes at a time of "global multipolarity", a buzzword used by many BRICS nations in recent months in the effort to dethrone the Dollar. The BRICS alliance, recently joined by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the UAE, and Ethiopia, now accounts for almost half of the world’s GDP and has made dedollarization one of its primary goals.

The impact is already visible: the U.S. dollar now accounts for just 42% of global foreign reserves, with gold rapidly climbing as central banks stockpile bullion, raising its role to second place ahead of the euro.

SWIFT Dominance Faces a Real Challenger

Global cross-border payments are worth over $200 trillion annually, according to FXC Intelligence and Grand View Research. While SWIFT remains the backbone of global trade, many alternative systems like the CIPS (Yuan), Dedwire (dollar), TARGET2 (EUROS) and many other smaller networks are gaining ground.

In 2024, CIPS settled over 175 trillion yuan ($24.47 trillion)—a 43% surge from the previous year. Analysts expect another 35–45% increase in 2025. Over 1,700 banks across 119 countries have already plugged into the network, allowing Beijing and Moscow to settle more than 95% of their bilateral trade in yuan and rubles, bypassing dollar clearing entirely.

Although much of CIPS still overlaps with SWIFT, the infrastructure is now in place for a full decoupling in the case of a total trade war. In short, while the yuan's share in international payments remains well below that of the dollar, things could be very different in a few years.

Bitcoin: The “Stateless” Reserve Asset

The dollar’s struggles are not just policy chatter—they’re showing up in hard data. The U.S. currency slumped 11% in the first half of 2025, marking its steepest tumble in half a century and the end of a 15-year bull market.

Morgan Stanley predicts another 10% drop by the end of 2026 as U.S. rates and growth expectations converge with the rest of the world. For American consumers, that translates into higher import prices, pricier travel abroad, and inflationary pressure at home.

For policymakers, the only hope is that a weaker dollar boosts exports—an urgent goal as foreign governments signal they are less willing to bankroll U.S. debt.

This is where Bitcoin explodes back into the geopolitical conversation. Once demonized by Washington as a threat to the dollar, the U.S. may now see the orange coin as a strategic weapon in the reserve currency wars.

Why? Because the “exorbitant privilege” of the dollar—the petrodollar system that kept trade surpluses abroad flowing back into U.S. Treasuries—is eroding. China and Russia are cutting exposure to U.S. debt. Central banks are funneling reserves into gold, which now accounts for 25% of global reserves.

Bitcoin offers an unconventional way out: a finite, apolitical, stateless digital asset that cannot be weaponized by foreign powers. Selling off part of America’s gold stockpile to back a Bitcoin strategic reserve could simultaneously weaken China and Russia’s gold-heavy hedges while giving the U.S. a technological edge in the new monetary era.

The idea is no longer fringe. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor was in Washington last week, meeting with White House officials on the potential for a Bitcoin reserve strategy. Insiders suggest the door is opening wider than ever before.

The Dawn of a Monetary Shake-Up

Between China accelerating the yuan’s global reach, the dollar suffering its steepest decline in decades, and Bitcoin gaining traction at the highest levels of U.S. policymaking, the stage is set for the most dramatic transformation of global reserves since the end of Bretton Woods.

If Washington does embrace Bitcoin as part of its future arsenal, analysts believe we could be entering the longest bull run in Bitcoin’s history—driven not just by retail and institutional adoption, but by the tectonic battles of geopolitics themselves.

For investors and policymakers alike, the message is clear: the dollar is no longer untouchable, the yuan is no longer immaterial, and Bitcoin is no longer optional.