Glossary
19 March, 2026
| Concept | Explanation |
| Allocated gold | Gold held in an account with a bullion dealer to which individually identified gold bars or coins owned by the account holders are credited. |
| AML | Anti-Money Laundering refers to the laws, regulations, and procedures designed to prevent criminals from disguising illegally obtained funds as legitimate income. |
|
AUM (Assets Under Management) |
The total value of assets managed on behalf of clients or processed through a platform. |
|
Collateralised borrowing/ lending |
Use of digital gold as collateral to support credit or yield-generating activities, subject to legal enforceability, custody structure, and market infrastructure. |
| Digital gold | Digitally represented exposure to gold and/or rights in relation to gold, enabled by modern infrastructure such as digital ledgers, APIs, and token rails. Often used as an umbrella term spanning certificates, gold ETFs, vaulted gold accounts, and tokenised gold. |
|
Fractional ownership |
The ability to own less than a full gold bar or standard unit while retaining gold price exposure and defined legal rights. |
| Fungibility | The ability for equivalent units of gold or digital representations to be interchangeable across products, venues, and locations. |
| Gold as a Service | A shared infrastructure model that would enable businesses to create, issue, and operate gold-backed products without independently building the full physical, legal, and technology stack. |
| Gold ETF | A publicly traded investment fund that provides exposure to gold (typically by holding physical gold and/or using derivatives), allowing investors to access gold returns through traditional brokerage accounts without taking delivery. |
| Interoperability | The ability of digital gold products or platforms to operate across different systems, venues, or technologies, subject to applicable compliance constraints. |
| KYC | Know Your Customer refers to the process by which businesses verify the identity of their clients to assess and monitor potential risks of illegal activity. |
| Liquidity | The ease with which a gold instrument can be bought or sold with limited price impact, supported by active markets, venues, and market makers. |
|
Liquidity provider/market maker |
An entity that provides continuous two-way pricing, inventory, and execution support to enhance liquidity and narrow bid-ask spreads. |
| London good delivery | A set of rules and specifications published by the LBMA which describes the physical characteristics of gold bars for the settlement of transactions on the Loco London bullion market. |
| Pool-allocated gold | Pool allocation provides investors with co-ownership in one allocated gold bar or a pool of allocated gold bars. Pool-allocated gold is fully backed by physical gold. Investors own a fraction of the overall pool of allocated gold but are not allocated individual bars. |
| Pooled gold interest (PGI) | A proposed pooled fractional interest in gold intended primarily for institutional or wholesale participants, combining features of allocated and unallocated structures while supporting digital transfer and broader utility. |
| Portability | The ability of an asset to be easily transported, transferred, or moved across borders, individuals, or jurisdictions without significant loss of value, utility, or legal recognition. |
| Proof of backing | Independent verification or attestation that digital gold tokens or claims are fully backed on a 1:1 basis by physical gold holdings. |
| Redemption | The process by which a holder converts a digital gold position into physical gold or a cash equivalent, subject to defined eligibility, fees, and delivery terms. |
|
Remittances/ P2P transfers |
Cross-border or peer-to-peer value transfers conducted using digital gold tokens, subject to compliance, foreign exchange, and distribution constraints. |
| Settlement | The completion of a transaction through the transfer of asset ownership and the corresponding payment or consideration. |
| Tokenised gold | A digital token with value linked to gold and issuance, transfer, and redemption are managed via blockchain or equivalent token infrastructure; designs vary by legal structure and redemption rights. |
| Unallocated gold | A claim on gold recorded as a balance with an intermediary rather than specific bars, commonly used in wholesale markets and potentially introducing counterparty risk. |
| Vaulted gold | Physical gold stored on behalf of a customer in a professional vault, with associated record-keeping and reporting by the custodian. Can be either allocated or pool-allocated. |
