World Gold Council Bets on Tokenization to Unlock $700 Billion in Demand

The World Gold Council is pushing to modernize the precious metals market by building shared infrastructure for tokenized gold. By streamlining custody and settlement systems, the organization believes it can overcome current fragmentation and attract up to $700 billion in new investment, moving gold beyond its traditional role as a passive store of value.

Money Talk·October 20, 2026·reads: 632

Developing a unified digital foundation could transform gold into a more dynamic financial asset. Currently, the market is held back by high entry costs, varying regulatory standards, and a lack of interoperability between platforms. The Council’s proposed "Gold as a Service" initiative aims to bridge this gap by connecting physical vaulting with digital issuance, allowing banks and fintech firms to offer tokenized products without prohibitive development hurdles.

Institutional interest is growing as firms look for ways to make "dead" assets on balance sheets more efficient. Vincent Domien of ICBC Standard Bank noted that tokenization allows institutions to pledge gold as collateral instantly, providing liquidity without requiring the sale of underlying holdings. Similarly, HSBC’s experience in Hong Kong suggests that simplified digital access through mobile applications attracts a new demographic of investors who previously avoided traditional bullion.

While the tokenized market reached $4 billion in capitalization in 2025, it remains a small fraction of the $6 trillion retail gold sector. Success depends on solving the industry's fragmentation and ensuring that digital tokens remain transparently linked to physical metal. By standardizing these processes, the World Gold Council hopes to integrate gold into decentralized financial systems while maintaining the security that has defined the asset for centuries.