Glossary
19 October, 2026
| Concept | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Allocation | Share of investable wealth allocated to digital gold (%). |
| Assets under custody (AUC) | The value of gold held in custody on behalf of a product’s investors. Used in this report to size each product and the market as a whole. |
| Blockchain | A shared digital ledger, maintained across many computers, that records transactions in a way that is very difficult to alter afterwards. |
| Bullion | Gold, in bar form, refined to a purity of at least 99.5%. |
| Crypto wallet | Software or a device that holds the keys needed to own and transfer digital tokens. Setting one up is often required to buy tokenised gold. |
| Custodian | The entity that holds physical custody of gold on behalf of investors or platforms, typically appointing specialist vaulting providers to store the gold and maintaining records of each holder’s interest. |
| DeFi (Decentralised Finance) | A financial system built on public blockchains that uses smart contracts instead of traditional middlemen like banks or brokerages. |
| Digital gold | Gold held and traded through a digital account or token, backed by physical gold in secure custody. In this report, it spans tokenised gold and vaulted digital gold, and excludes gold-backed ETFs, leveraged products and gold-backed stablecoins. |
| Exchange | A trading venue, digital or traditional, on which gold, gold tokens or other digital assets can be bought and sold. |
| Fiat currency | Government-issued money, such as the US dollar, that is not backed by a physical commodity. |
| 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-backed 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. |
| Issuer | A business, such as a fintech, bank or gold platform, that creates and operates a gold-backed product for its own customers. |
| Latent demand | The additional investment in digital gold that would follow if all four barriers (trust, access, cost and utility) were removed at once, at today’s population and wealth. It is a ceiling rather than a forecast, so it carries no date. |
| Lending and collateral | Lending digital gold to borrowers, or using it as collateral to borrow against, to support credit or yield-generating activities. Subject to legal enforceability, custody structure and market infrastructure. |
| Over-the-counter (OTC) | Over-the-counter (OTC) transactions (also referred to as ‘off exchange’ trading) take place directly between two parties, unlike exchange trading which is conducted via an exchange. |
| Participation | Share of addressable investors holding digital gold (%). |
| 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. |
| Refiner / Mint | A company that produces gold bars or coins to recognised purity and weight standards, often supplying the physical gold that backs vaulted or tokenised digital gold products. |
| Smart contract | Self-executing code deployed on a blockchain that automatically carries out predefined actions, such as transferring or pledging a digital gold token, once its conditions are met. |
| Spot price | The current market price of gold for immediate delivery. Product premiums and fees are quoted against it. |
| Stablecoin | A digital token designed to maintain a stable value, typically by being pegged to a fiat currency such as the US dollar. |
| Super-app | A single mobile app that bundles messaging, payments, shopping and financial services, such as WeChat or Paytm. |
| Token | A secure digital record of a specified amount of gold, held on a blockchain, that can be transferred, pledged or redeemed depending on the product and jurisdiction (for example PAXG or XAUT). |
| Tokenisation | Representing ownership of an asset, here physical gold, as a digital token on a blockchain. This allows it to be divided into small fractions and transferred directly between holders. |
| Tokenised gold | A digital token that gives investors ownership of a specific quantity of physical gold held in secure custody. Each token corresponds to a fixed quantity of gold and the token price tracks the gold price. |
| Vaulted digital gold (digital gold certificate) | An app- or platform-based account enabling investors to own physical gold held in secure custody by a third party. |
| Yield | An additional return generated from an underlying gold holding through activities such as lending or supplying it as collateral, distinct from price appreciation in the underlying gold itself. |
