KETJU Research

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tokenized-commodity

DGLD (Gold Token SA)

Adverse research finding
Research assessment
adverse
Firm shelf
excluded by policy
Model-client eligibility
not assessed
Selection
not considered
Action and amount
Not set by research
Reviewed
2026-09-23 · v1
Next review
2026-12-23
Research basis
Individual research
Chains
Ethereum · sovereign, Base · hybrid, Solana · crypto-backed
Symbols
DGLD
Eligibility file
What the holder owns and who may hold it

Research, firm shelf, model-client eligibility, and advisor selection are recorded separately. The scheduled date is the outside bound; new evidence can reopen the file sooner.

DGLD gives the holder the strongest legal claim of the small gold tokens: under Swiss law each token is proof of co-ownership of one fine troy ounce of specific PAMP gold bars, and title moves with the token. Gold Token SA of Geneva issues it; MKS PAMP SA, the refiner that owns Gold Token SA outright since November 2025, makes the bars and keeps them in its own vault at Castel San Pietro. Anyone can buy DGLD on a decentralised exchange, and any holder who passes KYC can take delivery of the metal. On 2026-09-23 there were 2,411.96 DGLD across Ethereum, Base and Solana, about $10.3 million of gold. The adverse assessment rests on two facts. First, one group makes, stores and counts the gold: the custodian is the issuer’s parent, the bar list is signed by the vault operator, and Ketju found no published attestation by an independent firm of the bars behind the tokens. Second, on Ethereum a single private key holds the power to mint, to burn tokens from a holder’s address, to grant every role, and to replace the contract code; the litepaper says issuance and burning run under multi-party controls, and the chain does not show them. The legal claim is only as good as the records and keys that stand behind it. A client who wants gold is better served by a physically backed trust whose bars an independent custodian holds and an independent auditor counts.

The research file

What the holder owns

Gold Token SA’s General Terms & Conditions (last updated July 2026) say the token “qualifies as a title of proof (art. 8 CC)” that the holder has acquired co-ownership rights (art. 646 CC) and indirect possession (art. 919 CC) of the gold. Each token stands for one fine troy ounce of LBMA Good Delivery gold identified by bar serial number and recorded in Gold Token SA’s registry of co-ownership rights; a public Gold Mapper shows which bars a wallet co-owns. The terms say DGLD is not a debt or equity claim on Gold Token SA and pays no return. Because the holder owns the metal rather than a claim on the company, the gold should stay outside the estate if Gold Token SA or MKS PAMP fails. That protection depends on the registry: a co-owner who cannot show which bars are hers has a harder claim than one whose name is on a bar list. The terms also make Gold Token SA the administrator of the co-ownership and have holders waive the right to dissolve it or to deal in the gold except by moving the token.

Custody and proof

The gold sits “in the GTSA vaults at the PAMP vaulting facility” at Via Alle Zocche 1, Castel San Pietro. MKS PAMP SA is the custodian, issues the receipt of deposit before Gold Token SA mints, and signs the bar list that the Gold Mapper is checked against. MKS PAMP also owns Gold Token SA: a November 2025 announcement says it “acquired full ownership” of the company, which a consortium of MKS PAMP, CoinShares and Blockchain.com launched in 2019. The terms promise “periodic independent Gold audits,” and the litepaper says the vaults are “subject to independent audits of physical holdings,” but neither names the auditor or links a report, and the site publishes none. PAX Gold, by comparison, publishes a monthly attestation by KPMG of bars held by an OCC-supervised trust bank at a vault it does not own. Gold Token SA is supervised only for anti-money-laundering rules, through the VQF self-regulatory body.

Who controls each chain

Gold Token SA issues DGLD natively on each chain rather than bridging it. On Ethereum (0xA929…E9c8, 1,603.69 DGLD on 2026-09-23) and Base (0xe908…fB9A, 401.16 DGLD) the token is an upgradeable proxy. Transfers check a blacklist and a pause switch. The BURNER role burns the tokens tied to a bar from any address; the TOKEN_RECOVERER role moves a blacklisted address’s whole balance to a recovery address. On Ethereum one key, 0xb1c1…8b9d, holds the admin, minter and burner roles and owns the proxy admin that can replace the code; on Base another single key, 0xe003…44a0, does the same. Separate single keys pause (0xf661…aa2), blacklist (0x5ce7…324) and recover (0xafea…df2) on both chains. On Solana (dg1d…rTVz, 407.11 DGLD) the mint is a Token-2022 mint whose freeze and pause authorities are one-of-two multisigs and whose permanent delegate, which can move or burn any holder’s tokens, is a single key. The terms allow a freeze only for legal and regulatory reasons, and allow burning and re-issue for a holder who lost a key “at its own and sole discretion.” Gold Token SA retired an earlier Base contract on 30 June 2026 and tells holders not to use it.

Who may buy, hold and redeem

New tokens go only to authorised participants that deposit gold, for a 0.20% creation fee. Everyone else buys on Uniswap or Aerodrome with no onboarding and no minimum. Gold Token SA says it does not target EU or EEA persons and names no other excluded place, so US investors are neither admitted nor barred in its documents. Any holder may ask for the gold after KYC, AML and sanctions checks. Gold Token SA may burn the tokens and release bars ex works for a 0.20% burning fee plus transport, insurance, customs and taxes, which the litepaper describes for whole Good Delivery bars of about 400 ounces, about $1.7 million at the 2026-09-23 price. Or it may send the holder to an approved partner that delivers smaller bars or coins, down to one gram, for the partner’s own premiums. There are no storage or management fees: the costs are, in the terms’ word, “embedded” in the token.

Comparison and decision

On paper DGLD’s claim is better than Tether Gold’s and close to PAX Gold’s: title to identified bars under a clear body of property law, delivery open to any verified holder, and no fees. What it lacks is the separation that makes such a claim checkable. The refiner that owns the issuer holds the bars and signs the list; no independent report counts them; and single keys on Ethereum and Base can mint, burn and upgrade. The market is also thin: about $10 million outstanding, traded in DEX pools. The assessment reopens if an independent firm attests the bar list against supply on a published schedule, or if the admin, minter, burner and upgrade powers move to a multisig or timelock that the chain shows.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

Inherited controls

The research above describes the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The most administered layer sets the position’s effective control grade; that is a control description, not a quality or suitability score.

ChainVerdictGradeControl constraint
EthereumFavorable sovereign No sequencer, no upgrade key, no operator who can be compelled — rule changes require social consensus.
BaseFavorable with conditions hybrid Coinbase — one regulated US company — operates the only sequencer, and admin keys can upgrade bridge contracts within ~7 days.
SolanaFavorable with conditions crypto-backed no admin key can seize funds, but stake concentration and a sub-25 Nakamoto coefficient are the standing watch items.
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