The 18th Brics Summit will take place in New Delhi on September 12-13, focusing on promoting common alternative cross-border payment mechanisms and incre­asing local-currency trade settlement to reduce the countries’ dependence on the US Dollar (US$). However, Brics is far  from dethroning the dollar. Intra-Brics exports nearly quadrupled from $335 billion in 2009 to $1,197 billion in 2025. Assuming that all intra-Brics trade were settled in local currencies, just 4.59 per cent of global trade would have been settled in local currencies in 2025 — far from challenging US$ dominance. Euro gives a challenge to dollar in export invoicing, while the US remains a far bigger player in forex transactions. Although declining, the US$’s share in global official forex reserves was 56.42 per cent in 2025. The shares of the euro and yen have, meanwhile, risen since 2016. Renminbi’s share has declined since 2021.