A CEO whose company holds Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve says he hates the term “Bitcoin treasury company,” and that the market is rejecting every pure treasury play except Strategy. Patrick Lowry of Samara Asset Group joins Grace Remington and Sean Hagan to explain why “digital gold” was “stupid marketing” that turned Bitcoin into an investment instead of money, and why that framing is exactly why Bitcoin dips every time the Fed talks about hiking. He lays out how Samara uses Bitcoin as working capital instead, parking venture fund commitments in it and liquidating on capital calls regardless of price.
Chapters: 0:00 “I Hate the Term Bitcoin Treasury Company”: The Market Is Rejecting Pure Plays 1:05 Why “Digital Gold” Was Stupid Marketing That Made Bitcoin an Investment 2:13 Hold vs. Use: How Samara Runs Bitcoin as Working Capital for 20+ Funds 3:59 Capital Calls Explained: Parking VC Commitments in Bitcoin Across Halving Cycles 7:17 The Hurdle Rate Problem: Why Holding Bitcoin Can Be a Disservice to Shareholders 11:46 MSCI’s Non-Operating Company Decision and the 1940 Act Loophole 13:37 Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP: What Happens If Altcoin Treasuries Trigger a Backlash 15:21 Europe Went Backwards: BaFin, the First Bitcoin ETP and Post-Merkel Overregulation 20:20 France’s Bond Crisis and Why Germany Won’t Bail Out the French 23:30 What Rising Sovereign Yields Mean for Bitcoin and Why It Dips on Fed Hikes
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX) has announced plans to integrate Chainlink’s cross-chain technology for its gold-backed XGZ token, allowing the digital asset to move between different blockchain networks. In an October 27 announcement, Chainlink said GoldZip, the company behind XGZ,…
Real estate is the largest asset class in the world at $300–500 trillion, and Leon Wankum says Bitcoin won’t just overtake it, it will outgrow it. The real estate operator and author of Digital Real Estate joins Spencer Nichols on the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast to explain why real estate only became money after 1971, why 80–90% of its value is monetary premium rather than utility, and why that premium is migrating to Bitcoin the way information migrated to the internet. He lays out his $1,000 trillion base case, a price path to $1 million by the late 2030s, and why it’s now financially smarter to rent and buy Bitcoin.
Host: Spencer Nichols — Bitcoin Magazine Leon Wankum — Author of Digital Real Estate
Chapters: 0:00 Why $1,000 Trillion Is the Base Case for Bitcoin 1:44 From Rome to Nixon: How Real Estate Became Money After 1971 3:53 Leverage, Cash Flow and Why Most Real Estate Deals Don’t Work Right Now 6:24 Real Estate Is a $300–500 Trillion Market and Bitcoin Will Outgrow It 9:11 Collateral Doesn’t Need Cash Flow: Bitcoin’s 50% CAGR vs. Real Estate’s 4–6% 12:22 Why Bitcoin’s Four-Year Cycles and Volatility Are a Feature for Collateral 15:46 Rent and Buy Bitcoin: How the Monetary Premium Migrates Out of Real Estate 20:30 The Digital Real Estate Playbook: Sell, Accumulate, Refinance, Dual Collateral 25:34 Bitcoin Treasury Preferreds at 15% vs. Rental Property and the Future of Interest Rates 30:33 Bitcoin to $1 Million by the Late 2030s
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
J.P. Morgan just named Bitcoin the best-performing asset in its long-term outlook. In its 2027 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions, J.P. Morgan Asset Management projects Bitcoin outperforming large-cap stocks, gold, and bonds over the next decade. Grace Remington and Sean Hagan break down the 10% base case and 16% bull case, and what they could mean for Bitcoin’s price by 2036.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Bitcoin’s digital gold case is “a pretty strong rationale,” says Morgan Stanley’s Amy Oldenburg. But she wants to see Bitcoin trade more like gold and less like risk assets. She discusses Bitcoin’s correlation with gold, how stablecoins, quantum fears, AI, and inflation are weighing on demand, and why she won’t let one day or one inflation print define Bitcoin’s outlook.
Chapters: 0:00 – Stablecoins and USDT on Bitcoin 1:23 – Who’s Buying Morgan Stanley’s Spot Bitcoin ETF? 2:54 – Bitcoin as Digital Gold in Client Portfolios 4:11 – Moving Self-Custodied Bitcoin Into ETF Shares 5:33 – Borrowing Against Bitcoin ETFs and Spot Bitcoin 6:33 – Bitcoin’s Correlation With Gold and What’s Weighing on Demand 8:52 – How Morgan Stanley Is Assessing Quantum Risk 9:55 – Why Tokenization Could Transform Every Asset Class 12:24 – Morgan Stanley’s Digital Asset Lab 15:42 – AI Agents and the Future of the Agentic Economy
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Bitcoin has been flat to down this year, but ARK Invest isn’t changing its view. Lorenzo Valente, Director of Research for Digital Assets at ARK Invest, explains why the firm looks at Bitcoin on a five-year horizon and still believes it’s very early in the Bitcoin journey. He discusses ARK’s Big Ideas report, Bitcoin’s role as digital gold and permissionless money, and what still keeps institutional money on the sidelines.
Chapters: 0:00 – ARK Invest’s Lorenzo Valente on How Wall Street Sees Bitcoin Now 1:36 – ARK’s Big Ideas Bitcoin Price Target for 2030 2:51 – How Stablecoins Changed ARK’s Emerging Market Bitcoin Thesis 4:53 – The Rise of Tokenized Stocks and Real-World Assets 7:13 – What Tokenized Stocks Can Do That Brokerage Accounts Can’t 9:35 – Higher Rates, Inflation, AI and Bitcoin’s Macro Outlook 12:49 – Which Tokenization Business Models Will Win? 15:41 – Exporting U.S. Assets Offshore Through Tokenization 17:34 – ARK’s Bitcoin Outlook for the Next 12 to 18 Months 18:29 – The Four-Year Cycle and What to Watch Next
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Agencies and critical infrastructure organizations must be prepared to defend against adversaries using legitimate network tools, SentinelOne CISO points out.
Where will the money for Bitcoin’s next rally come from? CoinDesk’s James Van Straten looks at rotation out of gold, which sits about 25% below its all-time high, and what a correction in record-high US equities could mean for Bitcoin. He explains how stablecoin inflows have historically trickled into Bitcoin and why that could repeat. The discussion also covers Scott Bessent’s bond buybacks and the strong Bitcoin and gold rally that followed.
Chapters: 00:00 Bitcoin one year after its $126K all-time high 00:41 Why February was the Bitcoin bottom 01:24 Volatility and time compression in the Bitcoin cycle 02:06 Options overwriting and the institutional cycle 03:07 Will institutional demand make the bull market less violent? 04:22 Bitwise report: are Bitcoin holders becoming long-term? 06:20 Rate hikes, 10-year yields and the fiat system 08:35 Where Bitcoin’s next leg higher comes from: gold and equities 10:05 Euro contagion risk and the French bond market 12:09 Tokenization, altcoins and the 24/7 liquidity problem
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Treasury yields, oil prices and the yen carry trade are all reaching a breaking point, and Vincent Deluard warns that equities could be next. The StoneX strategist argues that markets will hold up through the midterms and the Anthropic IPO, but that AI capex can’t keep doubling forever. After November, he plans to turn bearish on stocks while staying bullish on Bitcoin and gold.
Chapters: 00:00 Why Rising Treasury Yields Point to Long-Term Dollar Debasement 02:01 Can AI and Robotics Grow the US Out of Its Debt Problem? 03:48 Bitcoin vs. Gold: Which Is the Better Debasement Hedge? 05:36 What Daily Tax Collection Data Reveals About the US Economy 09:34 Inside France’s Bond Market Crisis and Its Debt Problem 12:21 Eurozone Contagion Risk and the Case for Shorting the Euro 15:02 Yen, Oil and Treasury Yields: Three Signals at a Breaking Point 17:15 Top-Heavy Stocks, the Anthropic IPO and a Post-Midterm Sell-Off 19:52 The Return of QE and Why It’s Bullish for Bitcoin and Gold 21:27 Bitcoin Price Outlook for the Next Two Years
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Why could gold hit $10,000 sooner than most analysts expect? Jim Rickards says it is “fifth grade math”: going from $9,000 to $10,000 is only an 11% move, much smaller than the jump from $3,000 to $4,000. He also explains why central bank buying puts a floor under gold, and why a strong dollar and a falling gold price do not mean what the debasement crowd thinks.
Chapters: 0:00 Jim Rickards and the 1998 LTCM Rescue 0:31 What Breaks First: Why Crises Start a Year Before They Hit 3:10 Where’s the Leverage? The Yen Carry Trade vs. Private Credit 5:13 Gold as a Dollar Signal: Why “King Dollar” Contradicts the Debasement Trade 7:33 The Case for $10,000 Gold by Mid-2027 10:24 Bitcoin vs. Gold: Rickards’ Skeptical View 13:07 Will Bitcoin Be a Safe Haven or a Risk Asset in the Next Crisis? 14:45 MoneyGPT: AI Risk and the Fallacy of Composition 17:49 Why Rickards Calls Stablecoins the Most Dangerous Thing in the World 22:58 The Fed’s September Rate Hike and What Comes Next
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Digital Commodities has bought approximately C$100,000 of SOL, equal to about 5% of its estimated net asset value.
The Solana purchase was funded by selling part of the company’s physical gold position.
Bitcoin remains the foundation of its reserve strategy, with the company continuing to hold 11 BTC alongside cash.
A Canadian public company has made an unusual treasury trade: sell some physical gold and put the proceeds into Solana.
Digital Commodities announced on September 28 that it acquired approximately C$100,000 of SOL.
The position represents about 5% of the company’s estimated net asset value.
Bitcoin Stays In The Core Reserve
The Solana purchase does not replace Digital Commodities’ Bitcoin holdings.
The company says its reserve foundation remains anchored by 11 BTC together with cash.
Instead, management has created a second allocation for digital assets it believes could benefit from growth in artificial intelligence and blockchain infrastructure.
Solana is the first asset selected for that new bucket.
What makes the transaction interesting is the source of the money.
Digital Commodities funded the purchase by monetizing part of its physical gold holdings.
Corporate crypto treasuries normally raise cash through equity, debt or existing corporate reserves.
Moving directly from gold into SOL is a much more explicit portfolio allocation decision.
It effectively reduces exposure to one alternative reserve asset to increase exposure to a higher-risk blockchain asset.
Solana Is Being Treated As A Growth Asset
Digital Commodities is drawing a clear distinction between the roles of Bitcoin and Solana.
Bitcoin remains the reserve foundation.
SOL is being treated as a growth-oriented allocation tied to the company’s view that AI-driven economic activity will increasingly require blockchain infrastructure.
That thesis is still speculative.
AI applications do not automatically create demand for Solana, and SOL carries substantially more volatility and network-specific risk than physical gold.
The position is also small.
At roughly C$100,000, this is not a transformation of the company’s balance sheet.
But treasury strategies often become more interesting when the allocation logic changes rather than simply when the number gets bigger.
Digital Commodities is no longer treating digital assets as one undifferentiated category.
It is separating Bitcoin as a reserve asset from another group of tokens intended to capture growth.
The company says it may evaluate additional digital assets under that second tier as market conditions develop.
For now, Solana has the first slot.
And at least part of that position exists because the company decided it would rather own SOL than the gold it sold to pay for it.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
When Bitcoin fell from $125K to $60K, not one of the 15 major institutions Bitwise interviewed sold, and many bought more. Ryan Rasmussen, head of research at Bitwise, breaks down the firm’s first institutional crypto adoption report, covering pensions, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds, and why they treat Bitcoin alongside gold as a hedge against debasement.
Chapters: 0:00 Ryan Rasmussen on Bitwise’s Institutional Crypto Adoption Report 0:49 Why No Institutions Sold Bitcoin During the Bear Market 1:45 Wells Fargo’s 2–3% Bitcoin Allocation and the Debasement Thesis 3:45 Fidelity, BlackRock, and 2–8% Bitcoin Allocations 4:50 How ETFs Made This Bitcoin Bear Market Shallower 6:24 $2.5B in Weekly ETF Inflows and a New Wave of Capital 7:06 Why Bitwise Believes the Bitcoin Bottom Was $60K 9:36 Why Institutions Hold Both Bitcoin and Gold 11:37 Sovereign Wealth Funds Selling Gold to Buy Bitcoin 15:17 Why Bitcoin Isn’t Correlated to Bonds, Gold, or Stocks
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
Gold has spent centuries moving through vaults, banks, exchanges, refineries and jewelry markets.
Now, some of that same economic value is moving through blockchains.
In the first quarter of 2026, spot trading of tokenized gold reached $90.7 billion, already surpassing the $84.6 billion recorded across the entire year of 2025. At the same time, the World Gold Council estimates the total above-ground gold market at approximately $31 trillion, with more than $15 trillion representing investable gold.
Those numbers should not be interpreted as evidence that $90.7 billion of tokenized gold represents a large percentage of the global gold market. It does not.
That is precisely what makes the opportunity interesting.
Tokenized gold is still small compared with the underlying asset. Yet the digital market is growing quickly enough to raise a much larger question:
What happens if even a small fraction of one of the world’s largest and most liquid asset markets becomes digitally transferable, programmable and accessible through blockchain infrastructure?
The answer may not simply be another crypto product.
It could be a new layer of infrastructure connecting physical gold with digital financial markets.
$31 Trillion Is the Market Behind the Token
The first mistake in evaluating gold tokenization is to look only at the size of existing gold tokens.
The bigger picture starts with the asset itself.
The World Gold Council estimates that roughly 220,000 tonnes of gold exist above ground, representing a market worth around $31 trillion. More than $15 trillion of that is considered investable gold across physical bars, coins, ETFs, private holdings, central-bank holdings and derivatives.
Gold is also unusually liquid for a physical asset.
The World Gold Council estimates that gold trading averaged approximately $361 billion per day during 2025, including OTC trading, futures and gold-backed ETFs.
That matters because tokenization works best when there is already an established asset, established demand and established market infrastructure underneath it.
Gold has all three.
The technology does not need to create demand for gold from zero.
It needs to create new ways for existing demand to interact with it.
The $90.7B Number Changes the Conversation
Tokenized gold is not an entirely new concept.
Gold-backed digital products have existed in different forms for years, including digital gold accounts, certificates, ETFs and blockchain-based tokens. The World Gold Council describes tokenized gold as one part of a broader evolution toward digitally represented gold.
What has changed is the scale of activity.
CoinGecko reported that tokenized gold generated $90.7 billion in spot trading volume during Q1 2026, compared with $84.6 billion for the whole of 2025. Its data also shows that tokenized commodities reached $5.55 billion in market capitalization by March 31, 2026, with gold-backed tokens driving most of that growth.
But there is an important qualification.
Trading volume is not the same thing as market capitalization.
And neither tells us that tokenized gold is destined to replace conventional gold markets.
Instead, these numbers show something more useful:
There is already measurable demand for digitally represented gold, and the market is developing quickly enough for businesses to explore the infrastructure opportunity.
That is a much more defensible investment thesis than simply calling tokenized gold “the future of gold.”
Why Gold Is Particularly Suitable for Tokenization
Not every physical asset is equally easy to tokenize.
Gold has several characteristics that make the transition from physical ownership to digital representation particularly interesting.
Global Recognition
Gold does not need to explain its value proposition to every new market.
It is already recognized by consumers, investors, banks, central banks and financial institutions around the world.
Standardized Characteristics
Weight, purity, bar identification, custody location and other attributes can be documented and associated with specific gold holdings.
The World Gold Council’s Standard Gold Unit concept, for example, explores digitally representing standardized quantities of gold while maintaining information about attributes such as purity, weight and location.
Existing Liquidity
Gold already trades across OTC markets, futures exchanges, ETFs and physical markets.
Tokenization therefore has the potential to connect digital infrastructure with an established underlying market rather than attempting to manufacture liquidity from scratch.
Fractional Accessibility
Physical gold can be expensive or operationally inconvenient to divide, store and transfer.
A properly structured digital representation can allow ownership interests to be represented in smaller units, subject to the legal and economic structure of the product.
Digital Transferability
A token can potentially move through blockchain infrastructure much differently from a physical bar.
That creates opportunities for programmable transfers, automated settlement and integration with digital financial applications.
But there is a critical distinction:
Putting gold on a blockchain does not automatically make the underlying gold more valuable, more liquid or more trustworthy.
The infrastructure connecting the token to the physical asset determines much of the product’s credibility.
The Hardest Part Isn’t Minting the Token
Creating a token is relatively straightforward.
Creating a credible gold-backed financial product is not.
A serious gold tokenization model has to answer questions that have little to do with blockchain code.
Where is the gold stored?
Who owns it?
How is ownership recorded?
Who verifies the reserves?
How frequently are reserves reconciled?
What happens if the issuer becomes insolvent?
Can token holders redeem the underlying gold?
What are the minimum redemption amounts?
Who handles transportation?
What happens when a token changes hands?
Which jurisdiction governs the asset?
These questions reveal an important reality:
Gold tokenization is fundamentally a coordination problem between physical assets and digital infrastructure.
The blockchain is only one component.
6 Infrastructure Layers a Gold Tokenization Business Cannot Ignore
1. Asset and Custody Infrastructure
The token must have a clearly defined relationship with the underlying gold.
That can involve:
Vault integrations
Custodian records
Bar-level identification
Weight and purity information
Ownership records
Insurance information
Reserve reconciliation
Audit processes
The digital asset becomes more credible when the connection between token ownership and physical gold is transparent and verifiable.
The World Gold Council has identified custody coordination, reconciliation, compliance and redemption as important components of scalable digital-gold infrastructure.
2. Tokenization and Smart-Contract Infrastructure
The token itself needs rules.
Those rules can govern:
Issuance
Minting
Transfers
Burning
Redemption
Supply controls
Ownership restrictions
Administrative permissions
Emergency controls
The design should reflect the legal and economic structure of the underlying gold rather than treating the token as an independent cryptocurrency.
This is one of the areas where technical architecture and legal structure need to be considered together.
3. Investor and User Infrastructure
The user experience determines how easily someone can interact with the product.
A platform may need:
Account creation
Identity verification
Investment onboarding
Wallet management
Portfolio tracking
Token purchase
Transfer functionality
Redemption requests
Transaction history
Statements
Notifications
For institutional users, the requirements can extend much further into permissions, reporting, APIs and account structures.
4. Compliance Infrastructure
Tokenized gold does not operate outside financial regulation simply because the asset is represented on a blockchain.
The regulatory treatment can vary significantly according to:
Jurisdiction
Ownership structure
Distribution model
Investor type
Redemption rights
Custody arrangements
Secondary-market functionality
Nature of the token
That means compliance should be incorporated into the platform architecture from the beginning.
KYC, AML, transaction monitoring, geographic restrictions, investor eligibility and reporting workflows may all become relevant depending on the business model and applicable rules.
5. Redemption Infrastructure
This may be one of the most underestimated components of tokenized gold.
A user may be able to buy a token in seconds.
But what happens when that user wants the underlying gold?
A credible redemption process needs to establish:
Who can redeem → what they can redeem → minimum quantity → fees → processing time → delivery method → verification → settlement
The World Gold Council specifically identifies inconsistent redemption as one of the current limitations affecting digital-gold products.
That makes redemption more than a back-office feature.
It can become part of the product’s competitive proposition.
6. Secondary-Market Infrastructure
Primary issuance is only one side of the equation.
If token holders cannot efficiently transfer or trade their interests, the digital representation may provide limited additional utility.
A broader ecosystem could potentially include:
Peer-to-peer transfers
Exchange integration
Order-book trading
Liquidity providers
Market-making
Real-time pricing
Trading APIs
Portfolio analytics
This is where tokenization begins to move from digital ownership representation toward digital market infrastructure.
The Biggest Opportunity May Be Beyond Fractional Ownership
Fractional ownership is often presented as the main advantage of tokenization.
It is useful.
But it may not be the most transformative one.
The larger opportunity could be making gold more interoperable with digital financial infrastructure.
Imagine a gold-backed digital asset that can interact with:
Digital exchanges
Institutional trading systems
Payment infrastructure
Lending applications
Collateral systems
Treasury platforms
Wealth-management applications
Portfolio analytics
Cross-border financial services
The World Gold Council has specifically explored the possibility of digital gold becoming more useful as collateral and enabling broader transferability and financial-market integration.
That shifts the conversation.
The question becomes less:
“How do we tokenize gold?”
And more:
“What can businesses do with gold once it becomes digitally interoperable?”
That is a much larger product-development question.
Where Can a Gold Tokenization Business Generate Revenue?
Tokenization can create several potential revenue models depending on the business structure.
Issuance Fees
Businesses can charge fees for creating and issuing tokenized gold products.
Trading Fees
A secondary marketplace can generate revenue from transactions.
Redemption Fees
Physical redemption can create a service-based revenue stream where permitted.
Custody and Management Fees
Businesses may charge for asset administration, custody coordination or related services.
Institutional Services
Professional investors may require APIs, analytics, reporting, account structures and dedicated infrastructure.
Platform-as-a-Service
A technology provider can offer the underlying infrastructure to gold dealers, financial institutions, asset managers or digital-asset businesses that want to launch their own branded products.
The important point is that tokenization itself is not the business model.
It is infrastructure that enables a business model.
What Business Owners Should Validate Before Building
Before investing in development, a gold-tokenization business should answer seven questions.
1. What exactly does one token represent?
A specific gold bar, a fractional interest in pooled gold, a contractual claim, or another structure?
2. Who holds the underlying gold?
The custodian relationship should be clearly defined.
3. How is the reserve verified?
Proof-of-reserve processes, audits and reconciliation mechanisms should be established.
4. Who is allowed to purchase the token?
The answer can affect onboarding, compliance and distribution architecture.
5. How does redemption work?
Redemption should be defined before launch rather than added after the platform is live.
6. Where will liquidity come from?
A token without a credible transfer or trading environment may not deliver the intended benefits of digital ownership.
7. What happens when the platform reaches scale?
Architecture should account for user growth, transaction volume, market activity, integrations and operational complexity from the beginning.
These questions are more important than deciding which blockchain logo appears on the homepage.
From Gold Token to Gold Infrastructure
The next stage of tokenized gold is unlikely to be won simply by creating another gold-backed token.
There are already products in the market.
The bigger opportunity is building systems that make digital gold trusted, transferable, compliant, redeemable and useful.
That requires coordination between physical custody and digital systems.
It requires reliable data.
It requires transparent ownership.
It requires secure smart contracts.
It requires strong user and institutional workflows.
And it requires infrastructure that can scale beyond the first few thousand users.
This is why the development conversation should begin with the asset model and business model, not the token contract.
Building a Gold Tokenization Platform Around the Business Model
A scalable platform should be designed around the way the business intends to issue, distribute, manage and redeem tokenized gold.
For businesses entering this market, Gold Tokenization Platform Development Company capabilities can become relevant across the complete technology stack — from tokenization and smart contracts to investor onboarding, custody integrations, compliance workflows, trading infrastructure, redemption and analytics.
The objective should not be to build the maximum number of features.
It should be to build the infrastructure required for the intended market model, then create an architecture that can expand as adoption grows.
An institution launching a regulated gold investment product will have very different requirements from a fintech company building a retail digital-gold application.
A gold dealer entering tokenization may prioritize custody and redemption.
An exchange may prioritize liquidity, trading infrastructure and APIs.
A financial institution may prioritize compliance, institutional accounts, reporting and integration.
The platform should reflect those differences.
The Digital Transformation of Gold Is Already Underway
There is evidence that the broader gold industry is already thinking beyond traditional digitization.
The World Gold Council launched its Gold247 initiative around the digital transformation of the gold market, with work spanning gold-bar integrity, wholesale digital gold and standardized digital representations. It has also proposed a shared infrastructure model connecting physical gold custody with digital systems for issuance and management.
That is significant because it shows the conversation is moving beyond individual blockchain projects.
The industry is beginning to examine the infrastructure required to connect physical gold, digital ownership and financial-market workflows.
And that is where the $31 trillion market becomes relevant.
Even if tokenized gold remains a small percentage of global gold, the addressable opportunity does not need to capture the entire market to become commercially meaningful.
A fraction of a trillion-dollar asset class can still represent a substantial market.
How Softean Helps Turn Gold Tokenization Concepts Into Scalable Platforms
Softean helps businesses turn gold tokenization concepts into production-ready platforms designed around their asset structure, target users, custody model, compliance requirements, and market strategy. Our approach goes beyond creating digital tokens by connecting tokenization infrastructure with smart contracts, investor onboarding, custody integrations, redemption workflows, trading capabilities, APIs, analytics, and administrative controls.
As a Leading Asset Tokenization Platform Development Company, Softean can build customized infrastructure for businesses looking to digitize gold ownership, enable fractional access, create investor-facing platforms, or connect tokenized gold with broader digital-asset ecosystems. The technology can be structured around the specific operating model of the business, allowing the platform to support its initial launch while remaining adaptable for future products, integrations, and market expansion.
The objective is to make gold tokenization commercially usable — not simply technically possible. By combining blockchain infrastructure with the operational components required to manage digital representations of physical gold, Softean helps businesses move from an initial concept toward a scalable platform built for real-world users and transactions.
The $31T Question Isn’t Whether Gold Will Become Digital
Gold is already digital in many ways.
Trading, clearing, record keeping, ETFs, digital gold accounts and tokenized products have already introduced different forms of digital representation into the gold ecosystem. The World Gold Council notes that the next challenge is making these systems more interoperable, transparent and useful while preserving the trust associated with physical gold.
The more interesting question is what happens when those systems become increasingly connected.
If physical gold can be represented digitally, transferred efficiently, reconciled transparently, integrated with financial applications and redeemed through clearly defined mechanisms, tokenization could become more than a new ownership format.
It could become a new infrastructure layer for one of the world’s oldest financial assets.
The $90.7 billion of tokenized-gold spot trading recorded in Q1 2026 does not prove that transformation is inevitable.
But it does show that the digital market is already large enough to deserve serious attention.
And with approximately $31 trillion of gold above ground, the potential market sitting behind that digital experiment is difficult to ignore.
The next question is no longer simply whether gold can be tokenized.
It is whether businesses can build the infrastructure that makes tokenized gold genuinely useful.
That is where the next chapter of digital gold may be written.
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