Oil, the historic pillar of the dollar, is starting to escape it. Through a series of discreet but strategic agreements, the BRICS are accelerating a shift that is weakening the established monetary order. The yuan is gradually gaining ground in energy trade, supported by new financial infrastructures. Between geopolitical rivalries and the recomposition of global flows, this dynamic opens a breach in the domination of the greenback and announces a profound change in the international monetary system.
In brief
- The oil market is beginning an unprecedented shift with the emergence of the yuan in energy transactions.
- The BRICS are accelerating de-dollarization by directly bypassing the dollar in their strategic trade.
- Countries like India and Iran are adopting yuan payments, illustrating a concrete shift in global trade.
- Despite this dynamic, the dollar maintains a dominant position, revealing a gradual transition towards a multipolar order.
Oil swings out of the dollar
The questioning of the petrodollar is now materializing in concrete transactions between major energy powers. Several BRICS countries are intensifying the use of the yuan in their trade, thus bypassing traditional circuits dominated by the dollar.
This movement takes place in a context of geopolitical tensions where the American currency is perceived as an instrument of influence. Vladimir Putin summary this perception by stating: “The United States has transformed the dollar into a weapon”.
This reading is shared by certain Western analysts. David Lubin, a researcher at Chatham House, observes that “This growing sense that the dollar is being used as a weapon partly explains why its dominance is increasingly being questioned…”.
Behind these words, a tangible development is emerging: the growing use of alternative currencies in strategic exchanges, particularly in the energy sector, historically structured around the greenback.
- India purchased around 60 million barrels of Russian oil in March, some of which paid directly in yuan;
- Indian Oil Corporation made payments without dollar conversion, marking a technical break in energy transactions;
- Iran now charges its tolls in the Strait of Hormuz in yuan, at around $2 million per crossing, over an area representing nearly 20% of the world's oil.
An alternative financial architecture is taking shape
Beyond oil transactions, a deeper transformation is at work: the construction of a parallel financial system. The mBridge platform has already processed 387.2 billion yuan (around $55 billion), 95% of which was in digital yuan, while China's CIPS payment system recorded $245 trillion in transactions in 2025.
These infrastructures offer concrete alternatives to dollar-dominated circuits, allowing participating BRICS countries to reduce their dependence on the Western financial system.
At the same time, macroeconomic indicators confirm this development. The dollar's share of global reserves has fallen from 71% to 56.3% since 2008, while central banks have been accumulating more than 1,000 tonnes of gold per year for three years. Despite this, the greenback maintains a dominant position, still accounting for 89.2% of transactions on the foreign exchange market, and the yuan is constrained by Chinese capital controls.
This dynamic paves the way for a more fragmented monetary system. Projections suggest a future balance between several poles, dominated by the dollar, the euro and the yuan. While the shift remains gradual, developments observed in energy trade and financial infrastructure indicate that the transition is already underway, with lasting implications for the global economic order.
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