by Yogi Nelson
Dating back thousands of years, well before the ancient Roman Empire, gold has maintained its role as a store of value. That’s impressive. That begs the question: what properties does gold have that allow it to endure while paper money always fails? The answer is—gold combines scarcity, durability, and universal recognition.
In 2026, and beyond, gold’s properties won’t change—of that I am sure. Nevertheless, major change is afoot—of that I am sure also. Am I contradicting myself? Not at all. The evolution of gold in 2026, and beyond, will be the manner and infrastructure used to own, transfer, and verify it—of that I am confident also.
As discussed in Week One, tokenization does not alter the nature of an asset—it changes how ownership is represented and transferred. It’s an update, not a revolution. In other words, tokenized gold applies all the same properties to fully backed physical gold, allowing it to function within modern digital financial systems without losing its physical foundation.
Tokenized Gold in Practice: T-Gold
Tokenized gold is no longer theoretical. Platforms such as T-Gold (by Peter Schiff) illustrate how this model works in practice. T-Gold uses blockchain technology (Ethereum) to digitally represent ownership of fully allocated physical gold.
On T-Gold, a client can purchase tokenized gold through the digital platform. Each token represents a defined quantity of physical, investment-grade gold held in professional, insured vaults. The gold remains stationary; ownership changes are recorded digitally. This distinction mirrors a core theme from Week One: custody and ownership do not need to move together. The token is not a derivative or a paper promise. It represents ownership of allocated gold, expressed through a digital record.
In practical terms, T-Gold allows clients to:
- Acquire physical gold without handling or transport
- Hold gold in divisible digital units
- Transfer ownership efficiently
- Retain the option of physical redemption, subject to platform terms
The result is gold ownership that combines physical backing with digital efficiency. Point on the scoreboard!
A Second Reference Point: Paxos Gold (PAXG)
Paxos Gold (PAXG) provides a second, widely recognized example of institutional-grade tokenized gold. Paxos decided to go with the most used layer one blockchain—Ethereum.
Each PAXG token represents one fine troy ounce of gold, allocated to specific London Good Delivery bars stored in LBMA-approved vaults. Token holders can verify the serial numbers of the bars backing their tokens and, under defined conditions, redeem tokens for physical metal. Trust and verify!
As outlined in Week One, transparency and auditability are non-negotiable requirements for credible real-world asset tokenization. PAXG demonstrates how those requirements are implemented in practice through allocation, reporting, and regulated custody.
Why Traditional Gold Ownership Is Operationally Limited
Physical gold ownership is risky. With physical ownership, a multitude of weak points are introduced. For example, you could have disasters in storage, insurance, security, and transport. That’s why I can’t imagine storing gold at home.
Paper gold products, on the other hand, reduce some frictions—but at what costs? With paper you have counterparty risk, opacity, and a lack of direct claims on specific bars.
Is there a solution to the dilemma? Yes, tokenization.
Why Blockchain Fits Gold
Tokenization, as framed in Week One, separates physical custody from ownership transfer. Gold remains physical; ownership becomes digital. This separation reduces friction without weakening asset integrity. A perfect solution. Moreover, blockchain systems provide verifiable ownership records, fine-grained divisibility, near-instant settlement, and cross-border transferability. These characteristics align closely with the functional goals described in Week One for modernizing hard assets without financial abstraction.
Applied to gold, blockchain improves how ownership is recorded and transferred—nothing more, and nothing less, at a reasonable price. Winner!
Why Gold Leads Tokenized Hard Assets
Gold is emerging as the lead tokenized hard asset. It’s not hard to understand why if you consider what I explained in Week One—gold has global acceptance, deep liquidity, high value density, mature custody infrastructure, and established legal treatment. T-Gold and Paxos Gold demonstrate the broader principle: blockchain can enhance hard assets without turning them into abstractions.
Could others follow? Sure. Over the course of 2026, I will cover the other possible candidates, including silver, copper, or farmland. Gold, rightly, is the pioneer—but others will most likely trail not far behind.
Is Big Money Open to Tokenization
BlackRock Asset Management and Franklin Templeton are tokenizing financial assets in record volume. In fact, BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink, has spoken openly about the tokenization of all assets. Therefore, why doubt that tokenization of gold is not inevitable? Already, we see tokenized gold is increasingly used within institutional and regulated environments, including digital custody platforms, on-chain settlement systems, collateral frameworks, and portfolio allocation tools. Basically, tokenization is evolving as infrastructure, not disruption. Tokenized gold improves efficiency while remaining compatible with existing financial systems. Great combo!
Due Diligence Never Goes Out of Style
Tokenization does not eliminate risk. Custodian quality, vault jurisdiction, audit transparency, legal enforceability of redemption rights, and blockchain governance all remain critical considerations. These risks align with the asset-layer framework introduced in Week One: weaknesses in the physical, legal, or digital layer undermine the entire structure.
Conclusion
As this series continues, the same framework introduced in Week One, and reinforced here in Week Two, will be applied to silver, copper, and other metals. However, I started with gold as it remains the benchmark—the asset that shows how traditional value can function in a digital system. Gold remains unchanged. What changes is how ownership is recorded and transferred. Technology enhances asset clarity, a necessity in today’s world!
Until next time,
Yogi Nelson
Selected Sources
This article is part of an ongoing weekly series examining the tokenization of precious metals—covering custody, standards, regulation, issuer structure, settlement infrastructure, and market design. The series is published on BlockchainAIForum and LinkedIn and is among the few sustained, multi-metal editorial projects focused on tokenized metals as financial infrastructure rather than product promotion.
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