Meanwhile, DBS has also announced that it is launching a token for physical gold aimed at retail investors in the second half of 2026.
“While our retail investors have been able to buy gold funds, access to physical gold has been largely available to only institutional and accredited investors,” says DBS group head of investment product and advisory James Tan. He adds that DBS is leveraging tokenisation to broaden access, enabling more retail customers to invest in gold.
Despite their differences, these tokens have one similarity — the tokens are not fungible across different platforms. This means that each type of token can only be traded within the specific ecosystem it was developed in, limiting liquidity and market reach.
However, as mentioned, the situation may change in the future as efforts to enhance fungibility across different platforms are underway.
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According to Mike Oswin, World Gold Council’s (WGC) global head of market structure and innovation, the WGC is developing Gold as a Service (GaaS) — a shared infrastructure that provides gold token product developers with an operating layer or “digitally native layer” of physical gold.
Each gold token represents a digital representation of a physical amount of gold. However, individual product developers have been working on their own products with differing standards and values, or in their “own silo”, according to Oswin. This inconsistency means that current tokenised gold products lack fungibility across the whole market.
GaaS thus aims to standardise the gold value of each unit, ensure enforceable and clearly defined ownership and redemption right for each unit, and provide consistency across operational, custody, reconciliation and assurance processes. These measures would enhance fungibility, turning fragmented digital gold products into a single investable category and enabling tokenised gold to function as a financial asset.
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From past experience, Oswin shares that many product developers neglect the physical layer. To WGC, a token must be backed by allocated physical gold and not derivatives. The physical gold requires reliable custody, vaulting, insurance and legal structures, among other requirements for a viable and trusted product.
Oswin explains: “You need to insure it to give all the confidence to your clients that the gold that they’re investing in is their gold. It’s their legal title, and it is safe and secure in a top-class vault with a top-class legal structure.”
However, it is challenging and costly to obtain allocated physical gold, especially for smaller developers. Hence, GaaS also seeks to remove barriers to access the physical layer. “Whether you are a small innovator or a super app, all you have to do is sign one contract with Gold as a Service,” says Oswin.
In essence, WGC envisions GaaS as a “plug and play” platform where product owners can easily access liquidity, vaulting, insurance, legal structure and the other necessary requirements. “By doing this, we can ultimately nurture and help catalyse hundreds, if not thousands, of successful digital gold products that just cannot come to market today,” says Oswin.
To build the physical layer, WGC is working with various service providers, liquidity providers and technology partners across the ecosystem. “Its a huge orchestration of existing services,” Oswin points out.
He adds that WGC will work with partners on the operations while supporting the commercial side of GaaS which provides credibility to investors. “The investors in the products will be able to understand it, because we will market it and we will explain what it is,” he says. “These [physical gold layer requirements] will be standardised [and] it will be simple.”
By enhancing fungibility and trust, GaaS also simplifies tokenised gold, making it a more straightforward product for investors to understand.
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Oswin also shares that WGC has received “great responses” from potential partners for GaaS. While he is unable to reveal names, he shares that these partners include fintechs and super apps.
Furthermore, the WGC is aiming to conduct a real-world pilot for GaaS towards the end of 2026 or into 1Q2027, shares Oswin. “This is a project that is going to scale over time [and] it’s going to be a multi-faceted, multi-phased project.”
In Singapore, efforts are underway to build up its infrastructure and capabilities as a gold trading centre. These include building a “sound” and “robust” physical layer that could enable the development of gold-related capital market products, according to Singapore Bullion Market Association CEO Albert Cheng. Presumably, digital or tokenised gold is included as a potential product in these endeavours.
“Physical gold remains the foundation and it must always be there,” stresses Cheng. “You must have a very clear governance structure and legal framework to tie in the tokenised product to the physical layer.”
Cheng adds that SBMA encourages digital innovation, especially if it improves access, efficiency, transparency and transferability. But he is also cautious, adding: “My view is clear — build the foundation first, then innovate responsibly.”
On allowing retail participation in digital gold, Cheng emphasises: “We also must be extra careful and make sure that the retail investor understands what is being sold. A higher level of disclosure is required.
“Clarity on fees, investor understanding, proper safeguards and product credibility are essential. Otherwise, you create confusion rather than confidence.”
