You’ve heard the legends. Fort Knox, America’s ultra-secure gold vault, supposedly holds a mountain of gold bars. But here’s the thing—almost no one has actually seen that gold in decades. It’s basically the financial world’s version of Area 51.
Then, out of nowhere, Elon Musk jumps into the conversation. Yes, that Elon Musk—the guy who builds rockets, tweets nonsense, and somehow moves entire stock markets with a single post. On February 17, he casually asked on X:
“Is there really gold in Fort Knox?”
The internet immediately lost its mind. Because let’s be honest—if Musk wants to check, who’s stopping him? Are we about to witness the first billionaire-funded gold audit? Or is this just another classic Musk moment, designed purely to shake things up?
⚠️ Warning: Heavy Speculation Ahead! ⚠️
This post contains a mix of facts, wild guesses, and good old-fashioned conspiracy theories. Read it like you would a late-night Reddit thread—fun, intriguing, but not something to bet your life savings on. Now, let’s dive into the mystery of Fort Knox! 🚀
1. Elon Musk recently said he’s curious whether there’s actually gold in Fort Knox—and he’s open to investigating the conspiracy theory himself.
2. The Fort Knox conspiracy theory? It’s the claim that there’s no real gold stored there.
3. Fort Knox is actually the name of a U.S. Army training base in Kentucky.
4. Right in front of the base’s main gate sits the United States Bullion Depository—aka, the vault where America’s gold is supposed to be stored.
5. It’s built in a location where the military can step in immediately if there’s ever a security threat.
6. The Fort Knox depository is no joke—it’s a heavily fortified concrete building with walls over a meter thick, and the vault door alone weighs 22 tons.
7. Even if you enter the correct code, the vault won’t just swing open and let you take the gold.
8. Once the code is entered, it takes 100 hours for the vault door to actually open.
9. Fort Knox was built in 1936, and official records say it holds 147.3 million troy ounces (or about 4,175 tons) of gold.
10. But Fort Knox doesn’t only store gold.
11. At various points in history, it’s been used as a treasure vault for priceless American artifacts—things like the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and even a Gutenberg Bible.
12. On February 17, Elon Musk, who oversees the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), posted on X: “Looking for gold at Fort Knox.”
13. Musk then followed up with, “Who’s actually checking that gold hasn’t been stolen? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not. That gold belongs to the American people. We want to know if it’s still there.”
14. Musk is known for being direct, but sometimes he drops statements with hidden motives.
15. He’s the kind of guy whose words always have another layer—so you have to read between the lines.
16. The last time anyone physically confirmed Fort Knox’s gold was back in 2017, when then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited with a congressional delegation.
17. Since the gold has already been checked multiple times in the past, Musk probably isn’t just looking to verify if it still exists.
18. One particular phrase Musk used—“That gold belongs to the American people”—feels like the real clue here.
19. Right now, the 147.3 million ounces of gold in Fort Knox is recorded on government books at an outdated price of $42.22 per ounce, valuing it at just $6.2 billion.
20. But today, gold is worth $2,911 per ounce (for reference, a troy ounce used for gold is 31.1g, while a regular ounce is 28.35g).
21. If Fort Knox’s gold were revalued at today’s price, its worth would skyrocket from $6.2 billion to $428.9 billion.
22. The U.S. Treasury doesn’t keep all its gold in one place.
23. Besides Fort Knox, a big chunk of gold is stored at the New York Federal Reserve’s vault, as well as smaller amounts in the Denver and West Point mints.
24. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when the World Trade Center collapsed, the Federal Reserve had to issue a statement confirming that its underground gold vault was unharmed.
25. They were talking about the Fed’s ultra-secure underground vault, located 25 meters below 33 Liberty Street in Manhattan.
26. For perspective, Fort Knox’s vault door weighs 22 tons. But the New York Fed’s vault door? It’s a massive 90 tons, surrounded by even heavier security and thicker walls.
27. While Fort Knox holds the most U.S.-owned gold, the New York Fed actually has more total gold in its vaults.
28. That’s because Fort Knox only stores gold owned by the U.S. government, whereas the New York Fed holds deposits from the IMF and various foreign central banks—about 7,000 tons in total.
29. Why is so much foreign gold sitting in the U.S.? The answer goes back to World War II.
30. In the early days of the war, Germany was on the offensive, and European countries feared defeat.
31. To protect their wealth, many of these countries started shipping their gold to the safety of the United States.
32. Later, as German attacks destroyed European weapons factories, those countries melted down their gold and used it to buy American-made weapons.
33. At first, most of the gold in the New York Fed belonged to America’s allies, but as war costs piled up, some of that gold became U.S. property.
34. Of the 12,000 tons stored at the New York Fed at the time, about 3,000 tons eventually became American-owned.
35. Even after the war, about 9,000 tons of gold remained under the Fed’s protection.
36. Starting in 1966, some countries began reclaiming their gold.
37. In 1966, France withdrew $3 billion worth of gold and transported it home via submarine.
38. More recently, in November 2024, the Dutch central bank moved 122 tons of gold back to Amsterdam.
39. Transporting hundreds of tons of gold isn’t easy, and many countries lack secure storage facilities, so most still leave their gold in the New York Fed’s vaults.
40. Even now, about 4,000 tons of foreign-owned gold remain locked up in the Fed’s underground vault.
41. Fun fact: The gold heist in Die Hard 3? That was about criminals stealing from the New York Fed vault.
42. If the U.S. Treasury decided to revalue its gold holdings, it wouldn’t just affect Fort Knox—it would impact the entire U.S. gold stockpile.
43. Right now, the Treasury officially records 8,133 tons of gold at a total value of just $11 billion (261.33 million ounces × $42.22).
44. Revaluing that gold at today’s prices would boost its worth to a staggering $760.3 billion (261.33 million ounces × $2,911.55).
45. The Federal Reserve currently accepts certificates from the Treasury that value gold at $42.22 per ounce and records it as an asset while issuing dollars in return.
46. If the Treasury revalued its gold at today’s market price, the difference would show up in the Fed’s GRA (Gold Revaluation Account).
47. The GRA hasn’t been used since 1973, but a revaluation would bring in a massive accounting gain.
48. However, this wouldn’t mean selling any gold—just updating its book value—so the extra money would only exist on paper, recorded in the Fed’s financial statements.
49. Some reports claim that a gold revaluation would add funds to the Treasury’s TGA (Treasury General Account), but that’s actually incorrect.
50. For money to be deposited into the TGA, one of two things must happen.
51. Option 1 : The Treasury would have to sell some of its gold, turning the paper gains into real money.
52. Option 2: The Fed would have to transfer the revaluation gains from the GRA to the Treasury via “Payments to Treasury,” which works like a dividend.
53. Neither of those options is simple.
54. On February 4, 2025, Trump signed an executive order to establish a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, saying it could be used to buy TikTok.
55. But while he announced the fund, he didn’t say where the money would actually come from.
56. One possible source? Using the Treasury’s gold reserves to finance the sovereign wealth fund.
57. After all this speculation, though, there’s another possibility.
58. Maybe Elon Musk’s comment was just another case of him stirring the pot for fun. 😏
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