Mint Explainer: Why Trump's Venezuela shock is fueling gold, not crude

capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges ranging from drug smuggling to electoral subversion has injected fresh uncertainty into global markets, lifting gold prices while pushing oil marginally lower.Since Venezuela holds the world’s largest oil reserves—about 303 billion barrels—crude initially drew market attention. Oil prices, however, have remained muted amid weak demand and existing supply overhangs.

Gold, by contrast, has reacted more strongly, with analysts saying the fresh uncertainty has added momentum to its bull run.Venezuela holds meaningful official gold reserves, estimated at around 160 tonnes, alongside vast untapped mineral resources. While experts say the US is unlikely to gain direct control over these assets in the near term, Donald Trump's move strengthens the case for gold as a strategic reserve.The US action accelerates de-dollarization trends that intensified after the Russia-Ukraine war, when Russian dollar-denominated assets were frozen by Western powers, said Anindya Banerjee, head of currency and commodity research at Kotak Securities Ltd.“Since then, trust in the dollar as a neutral reserve currency has eroded,” Banerjee said.

“Fragmented power centres are increasingly prioritizing real assets over paper guarantees.”The US move, he added, fractures an already multipolar world further, reinforcing incentives for central banks, particularly in emerging and non-aligned economies, to diversify reserves away from the dollar and towards gold.The bigger question for markets is whether this episode marks a shift in how gold is priced. Harsh Gupta Madhusudan, fund manager of Ionic Asset’s PIPE Fund, argued that gold has evolved over the past five years from a simple inflation hedge