In the case of the U.S. dollar, it would be fair to say that its status as ‘world currency’ has come under pressure in recent months.
Owing to snowballing U.S. debt and polarising policy changes courtesy of 47th POTUS Donald Trump, it would appear that the root cause of the aforementioned safe-haven inflows comes predominantly from the United States itself, whether from the White House or otherwise.
The most significant of these is trade tariffs, synonymous with the Trump campaign, which boosts market risk aversion, especially when agreements between the US and other key nations appear unlikely to be met.
Whereas the dollar typically benefits from safe-haven demand, it seems that this time, it can only watch from the sidelines as investors choose to look elsewhere for a more secure, reliable, and dependable store of wealth.
In comparison, the Japanese yen has benefited much more than the dollar in terms of safe-haven demand, but still, for the most part, has played second fiddle to the Swiss franc for much of 2025.