Author: Zhang Feng
As the oldest means of value storage in human civilization, gold is being revitalized through blockchain technology. Gold RWA (Real World Asset) products transform physical gold into on-chain digital assets, becoming a bridge connecting traditional finance and the digital economy.
On September 12, Chow Tai Fook announced a strategic investment in Hong Kong Gao Ying Securities through its subsidiary, indirectly holding a 15% stake. The plan aims to integrate resources from cross-border payments, precious metals, and capital markets to collaboratively promote innovations such as virtual asset license upgrades and the tokenization of real assets (RWA). This marks another traditional enterprise officially entering the gold RWA sector.
1. Encountering Blockchain, Traditional Gold Welcomes Digital Transformation
The traditional gold market has obvious pain points: low liquidity, high transaction costs, complex authentication and custody, and difficulties in cross-border movement. The global gold market is valued at up to $900 billion but struggles to meet the needs of the digital finance era. Blockchain technology provides solutions to these pain points. By tokenizing physical gold, each token is backed by corresponding physical gold, achieving the divisibility, programmability, and high liquidity of gold assets.
Since 2025, leading global institutions have been laying out plans for gold RWA. The World Gold Council intends to launch "digital gold," aiming to create a new way of trading, settling, and mortgaging gold. Taiwan Bank, in collaboration with eight national banks, has initiated a gold tokenization pilot program, expected to yield preliminary results by the end of the year.
2. Triple Attribute Integration, Creating a New Paradigm for Value Storage in the Digital Age
The value logic of gold RWA is built upon the multiple attributes of gold itself and the enhanced capabilities of blockchain technology.
Financial Attributes: In the context of global inflation expectations, digital gold has brought changes to the trading ecosystem. Tokenized assets enable high-frequency trading of gold, significantly increasing its liquidity and enhancing the "price discovery" capability beyond traditional trading.
Investment Attributes: RWA can use tokens to break down trading units into sufficiently small portions, allowing more small and medium investors to participate. This has inclusive social value in the context of a society that prefers savings.
Physical Attributes: Through the trading method of digital gold, the value of physical gold is linked to the price of virtual gold, allowing the wealth effects of both types of gold to stabilize without disconnecting from each other.
3. Diverse Participants, Dual-Layer Structure Ensures Compliance and Efficiency
Currently, the issuance models of gold RWA in the market can be categorized into several types:
Securities-Type Issuance Model: Taking Hong Kong as an example, if a token is classified as a security token, it must be regulated under the Securities and Futures Ordinance, with issuance and trading services provided by a licensed VASP from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
Stablecoin Model: Such as PAXG, a stablecoin pegged to gold, where each token is backed by physical gold.
Dual Token Model: For instance, the RandChain Gold uses a main token RGT to anchor each gram of physical gold held in a licensed vault, with a complementary token RCT used for ecosystem governance.
The "dual-layer architecture design" adopted by Taiwan Bank is quite representative: inter-bank transaction accounts are settled using alliance chain tokens, while clients still conduct transactions using gold passbooks. This design ensures efficient settlement between financial institutions while accommodating users' traditional usage habits. A comparison of several main gold RWA issuance models:
4. Multiple Sources of Revenue, Building a Sustainable Business Ecosystem
The profit model of gold RWA projects exhibits diverse characteristics:
Management Fee Income: This is the most basic source of income. Project parties charge a certain percentage of management fees on the custodial assets, typically between 0.5% and 2%.
Transaction Fees: The platform charges fees for token transactions, especially in cross-chain trading and cross-border payment scenarios.
Ecosystem Service Income: For example, the Auricore project generates multiple revenues through an ecological closed loop of "mining rights NFT + gold stablecoin + ABG governance token + on-chain GameFi."
Liquidity Mining Income: Some projects invest custodial gold into DeFi protocols to generate returns, providing users with additional rewards.
The case of Chow Tai Fook demonstrates how traditional enterprises can gain new profit points through gold RWA. Its overseas stores have a return on equity (ROE) that is 2-3 times higher than domestic levels, and through innovative financing models in RWA, capital utilization has doubled, breaking the growth curse.
5. Global Regulation Tightens, Compliance Becomes a Prerequisite for Development
The issuance of gold RWA (tokenization of real-world assets) faces multiple compliance challenges, mainly including the following aspects:
Underlying Asset Risk: Physical gold must have clear ownership, free from any rights defects (such as mortgages, judicial freezes, or historical holding relationships), and must be stored in vaults that meet the standards of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). The source and purity of the assets must undergo strict verification and regular third-party audits to ensure a 1:1 correspondence between on-chain tokens and physical gold, preventing "one gold sold multiple times."
Legal Attribute Recognition of Tokens: The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission adopts a "classification regulation" principle. If a token is classified as a "security token," it must be regulated under the Securities and Futures Ordinance and must be issued and traded through a licensed virtual asset service provider (VASP). The legal nature of the token must be clearly defined before issuance; otherwise, it may constitute "illegal sale of securities."
Asset On-Chain and Information Disclosure: The on-chain technology solution must comply with regulatory requirements, ensuring data security and clear mapping of on-chain rights. Project parties must conduct sufficient, truthful, and timely information disclosure, including details of underlying assets, risk factors, and revenue mechanisms. Any false statements or concealments may lead to regulatory penalties and class-action lawsuits.
Cross-Border Compliance and Continuous Operation: Due to the global circulation nature of gold, projects must comply with regulatory requirements in the issuance location, custody location, and the countries of investors (such as FATF anti-money laundering rules, EU MiCA regulations, etc.), and establish comprehensive KYC/AML processes.
Compliance is a core requirement that is systematic and continuous throughout the project. Maintaining communication with regulatory agencies and leveraging professional legal teams for compliance design are key prerequisites for the successful issuance of gold RWA projects.
6. Gold Leads the Trend, Promoting Standardized Development Across the Industry
The development of gold RWA has brought multiple impacts to the entire RWA industry:
Gold as the Best Entry Point for RWA: Gold's stable value, global recognition, ease of identification, and custody make it the most ideal underlying asset for RWA. Compared to real estate, art, and other asset types, gold has a higher degree of standardization and is easier to tokenize.
Promoting the Maturity of Regulatory Standards: One of the core requirements of Hong Kong regulation is that the issuance of virtual assets such as stablecoins must be anchored to "actual application scenarios." Gold RWA provides a high-quality sample for regulation, promoting the maturity of regulatory frameworks.
Facilitating Technological Progress: Gold RWA projects have driven many technological innovations, such as Taiwan Bank's pilot program researching the use of smart contracts to achieve cross-institution tangible asset delivery service models.
Changing Corporate Valuation Logic: The capital market's pricing logic for enterprises is no longer limited to the growth of store numbers and jewelry sales but has shifted to an "RWA ecological platform" that combines substantial physical assets, scarce financial licenses, and broad actual application scenarios.
Gold RWA not only changes the trading methods of gold itself but also creates a new paradigm of "physical consumption + digital finance." With the improvement of regulatory frameworks and technological advancements, gold RWA is expected to become an important component of global financial infrastructure.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
