GoldZip gold token (XGZ)

Review open since 2026-10-17: Open item: Re-read the goldzip-xgz eligibility file: its issuer documents changed. Ketju last checked the trigger on 2026-10-19. The verdict stands until the review closes.

Summary

Ketju does not approve GoldZip XGZ: the holder owns no gold, a wind-down would extinguish every claim, and GoldZip can freeze and burn any balance. XGZ is an Ethereum token meant to track one gram of gold. GoldZip Digital Pte Ltd, a Singapore company owned by the Hong Kong Gold Exchange group, issues it. GoldZip redeems 1,000 tokens for a 1 kg bar collected at Brink’s in Singapore. On 2026-09-23 about 39,017 XGZ were outstanding, roughly 39 kg of gold or $5.3 million. The terms say no holder has “a proprietary interest in any of the Good Delivery Bar(s) held by the Administrator.” The holder is therefore an unsecured creditor with a right to redeem on GoldZip’s terms. GoldZip publishes no attestation of the bars.

Review triggers
• GoldZip amends its terms to give holders a proprietary interest in allocated bars that survives its winding down
• An independent firm publishes an attestation or bar list covering the gold behind XGZ
• The owner contract caps the transfer fee well below 100% or removes forceBurn, or the implementation changes
• GoldZip freezes or force-burns an address, or publishes a suspension or wind-down notice
• Redemption opens below one kilogram or at a site outside Singapore

Ketju checks this memo every night. A review opened on 2026-10-17 and appears under the verdict above. The verdict stands until the review closes.

Research

How it works

GoldZip’s documents say each token is “backed by 99.99% physical fine Gold stored in HKGX recognised gold vaults.” They say holders “shall be entitled to redeem GoldZip Eligible Gold Bars.” The Terms and Conditions define what that means. Clause 4 states that no person, by holding tokens or otherwise, has a proprietary interest in the bars that GoldZip or its associates hold. No person has a right to a payment reflecting their value, and title to a bar passes only when the holder collects it. Clause 6 states that the token is not a security, a debt or a derivative. The holder is left with a contractual right to exchange tokens for bars. A Singapore private company owes that right, on rules that GoldZip may amend at its sole discretion.

Losses and incidents

The terms matter most if GoldZip fails. Clause 5 lets GoldZip suspend or wind down “by providing Notice(s).” Once the wind-down is complete, every holder’s claims are “extinguished in full and without recourse,” and the tokens carry no right or claim. The terms state that the tokens then become “perfunctory and without legal effect.” A holder of allocated metal would still own the bars if the issuer failed. An XGZ holder would stand in line with GoldZip’s other creditors, if the terms left any claim at all.

Withdrawals

The Rules set the process. An onboarded user who has passed KYC opens a ticket in the portal. The ticket names the bars, the collection site and any agent. GoldZip replies with the number of tokens to deposit: the exchange rate plus a non-refundable redemption fee. Within 72 hours the user must deposit the tokens and pick a collection date. The user must also sign an acknowledgement waiving “any and all existing and prospective claims” in respect of the redemption.

The only listed collection site is Brink’s Singapore on Kaki Bukit Road, weekdays 9 am to 5 pm by appointment. A missed date costs a late fee. Two misses within 30 days void the redemption, and GoldZip keeps a failed-collection fee from the deposit. The minimum is one bar, 1,000 XGZ, or about $135,000. Holders of less sell on MEXC or in the Uniswap pools that GoldZip lists, where HKGX member traders make markets.

Who controls it

XGZ is a UUPS proxy at 0x69af64f4…7161 on Ethereum, and the implementation’s source is an exact match on Sourcify. Its access control is unusual: `hasRole` returns true for the owner for every role. The owner contract 0xd173e691…0778 can therefore mint, freeze, burn, set fees, pause and upgrade. `freezeAccount` stops an address, and `forceBurn` then burns a frozen address’s balance. The transfer fee is 0.01% today. The owner can set it up to MAX_FEE_RATE of 10,000 on a 10,000 base, which is 100% of every transfer, paid to a fee address that the owner chooses. The owner is a contract wallet that reports three signers, and we did not read its threshold. We record freeze, pause, clawback (`forceBurn`) and upgrade powers.

The terms match the code. Clause 8 lets GoldZip “take any action necessary” so that a Prohibited User’s tokens “are rendered ineffectual,” with no claim for damages. GoldZip decides who is a Prohibited User.

Eligibility

GoldZip excludes only citizens and residents of Hong Kong. Minting requires KYB, so only companies buy from GoldZip, and others buy on exchanges.

Size and holdings

GoldZip says “third-party audits or attestations” cover the reserves. On 2026-09-23 we read its site, documents and transparency page, and they contained no attestation report, auditor name or bar list. The site offers a wallet lookup that shows an allocation GoldZip computes itself. The litepaper is dated November 2024.

Comparison

Paxos’s terms make PAXG a warehouse receipt for allocated bars. An OCC-supervised trust bank holds those bars, and an auditor attests them monthly. GoldZip’s terms make XGZ a revocable promise to redeem, with no property right and no attestation. Against a physically backed gold ETF, XGZ adds issuer credit risk and a one-kilogram redemption minimum. It also adds a keyholder who can erase balances and a transfer fee that the owner can raise to 100%. Ketju will review XGZ again if GoldZip grants holders a property interest in allocated bars, publishes an independent attestation, or caps the fee and removes forceBurn.

Sources

Each claim above comes from one of these sources. Where Ketju could not verify a number, the memo states that.

• GoldZip: Terms and Conditions (site script that renders goldzip.info/terms-conditions) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: no proprietary interest, title on collection, wind-down extinguishes claims, not a security or debt, Hong Kong excluded, Prohibited User tokens rendered ineffectual
• GoldZip: Rules relating to GoldZip tokens (site script that renders goldzip.info/goldzip-rules) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: 72-hour deposit and waiver, one-bar minimum, Brink’s Singapore collection, late and failed collection fees
• GoldZip Docs (GitBook, full text) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: GoldZip Digital Pte. Ltd., HKGX group, 1 gram per token, 0.01% transfer fee, 1,000 XGZ per bar, KYB to mint, periodic attestation promised
• GoldZip: goldzip.info home page · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: contract link, allocation lookup
• XGZ implementation on Ethereum (Sourcify exact match) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: owner holds every role, freezeAccount and forceBurn, MAX_FEE_RATE 10,000 of 10,000, UUPS upgrade

The asset and the chain

This memo covers the protocol. A position also holds an asset and settles on a chain. Whichever of the three holds the most power over the position decides who can freeze it. These tables describe control and do not judge quality.