It’s not just that
This is a gradual decline. From 70% in the 90s to 60% today. Today there are more options like the Euro that didn’t exist in the 90s. People can argue over EU economic stability, but it’s there as reasonable option.
There is a very sudden shift though - those options have existed but not generally been seriously considered. The US was seen as a bastion of stability and while sanctions could drastically impact a country's ability to trade due to the reliance on US currency exchange it has arguably been used relatively scarcely.
The change is that suddenly the US isn't a bastion of stability and having an independent trading currency could ensure more internal stability for other nations.
> Today there are more options like the Euro that didn’t exist in the 90s
Yet the Euro peaked back in 2009 and has been declining ever since.
At this point its share is not that massively higher than that of the German mark back in the 90s.
when do we reach a tipping point for rapid decline?
seems like once it starts falling, it would accelerate.
EU can easily pull the plug on Euro as a reserve currency if they confiscate the money of a certain country and give it to another one. That would be the "front fell off" moment for Euro.
As time goes on, fewer people are alive that predate the EU and more people will perceive it as a lasting institution.
Additionally, we've now seen the EU survive the departure of a major economic power (the UK). More people are certainly willing to believe in the stability of the EU now.
Another major currency is the Yuan, and some countries may be as willing to trade in Yuan to improve relations with China, so perhaps we won't see one single reserve currency but two spheres of influence with most countries maintaining reserves of multiple currencies.