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Tokenized commodities

Pleasing Gold (PGOLD)

Not approved The evidence weighs against it
Verdict
Not approved
The evidence weighs against it
Who can freeze it
Mixed control
Withdrawals
Anyone may hold and transfer PGOLD.
Reviewed
2026-09-23 · next 2026-12-23
Researched memo

Summary

Ketju does not approve PGOLD: the issuer’s board says the company owns the gold, the only reserve report counted 50.86% of the tokens without weighing the metal, and one private key can mint, blacklist, and burn any holder’s tokens. One PGOLD is meant to be one troy ounce of 99.99% gold held in Hong Kong. The issuer is Pleasing Golden International Limited, a Hong Kong company formed on 25 June 2025 with one director. CoinGecko puts the token at about $85 million. That figure is 19,505 tokens times the gold price, and on the issuer’s own count 99.91% of those tokens sat in 194 wallets that belong to the issuer or its owners. Outside holders had 16.95 ounces. The terms say a token is “intended to correspond to an undivided interest” in the metal, but the board resolved that the gold “is owned by the Company.” The reserve report listed 38.9% as “still under shipping” and 10.24% as held by the issuer or its owners, and the accountant counted neither. On Arbitrum, a second key can replace the contract. A client who wants gold is better served by a physically backed gold ETF or by PAX Gold. A large audit firm attests PAX Gold reserves monthly, and its holders own specific bars.

Research

What the holder owns

Pleasing Market, formerly Pleasing Golden, is a brand. Its docs name Pleasing International Limited as the entity behind the site and the AML policy. The reserve report names a different company, Pleasing Golden International Limited (business registration 78362335). Its sole director, Zhang Meizhen, signed a board resolution that the company “issued a tokenized gold asset named Pleasing Gold (PGOLD).” An appendix says the two companies share one ultimate beneficial owner and that purchase records, vault records and custody records “may be issued by either” company.

The Terms of Sale & Service are governed by Hong Kong law, with arbitration at HKIAC. They describe the token this way: “Each Metal Token is intended to correspond to an undivided interest in vaulted, LBMA-standard metal (e.g., gold) held with qualified custodians in Hong Kong.” That sentence describes a design and grants no right. It does not say the holder owns the metal and does not name the custodians. It also sits under a summary that the terms mark “non-binding.” The board resolution points the other way: the gold “is owned by the Company and is held under a segregated storage account in the custodian.” If the issuer failed, a holder would be an unsecured claimant against a Hong Kong company for metal that the company’s own board says it owns. The Terms of Use add that the issuer’s interpretation “shall prevail” in any dispute.

Custody

The only reserve document is a reasonable-assurance report by Visto CPA Limited, signed by Yeung Wai, dated 25 June 2026, under Hong Kong standard HKSAE 3000. It covers the company’s assertion about the quantity of gold in a rented store room at Unit 1032, Focal Industrial Centre, Hung Hom, Kowloon, plus two custodians in Hung Hom that the report does not name. Its criteria say “Quantity is determined by physical counting the physical presence. No weight and purity is confirmed.” The accountant stresses that the work “explicitly exclude[s] verifying the quality of the gold.” The weights in the appendix are the company’s figures: 281,243.08 grams in nine bricks of about 12 kilograms and 171 medals of about 1 kilogram.

Those 9,920.56 ounces cover 50.86% of the 19,505 tokens. The appendix puts 7,587.08 ounces (38.9%) “still under shipping” and 1,997.36 ounces (10.24%) “held by Pleasing Golden International Limited or its beneficial owners.” The accountant gave no assurance on either. The report is a count on a single day, and it gives no assurance “before or after this date.” The docs promise monthly attestations in their tokenization service terms, but the Reserve Report page carries only this report.

The licences page shows two registrations with Hong Kong Customs for precious-metals dealers, under the anti-money-laundering ordinance (Cap. 615). Pleasing International (HK) Limited holds a Category B registration valid to 13 May 2027. Hongkong Fuud Industry Limited, a company the docs do not otherwise mention, holds a Category A registration. Those registrations cover dealing and AML duties. Neither is a custody or trust licence, and neither covers the token.

Size and holdings

The same appendix lists holders on 25 June 2026. The issuer or its beneficial owners held 19,488.05 PGOLD across 194 wallets, and 152 “ordinary retail investors” held 16.95 PGOLD. On 2026-09-23 the Arbitrum contract still reported exactly 19,505 tokens. The Ethereum contract reported 110 more, minted by a Chainlink CCIP token pool. CoinGecko’s market cap multiplies supply by the gold price. Its only listed pool, Uniswap V3 on Arbitrum, traded about $5 in the prior day. PGOLD looks like an $85 million program only because the issuer’s own tokens are valued at spot.

This matters for the “Gold Standard Yield” the docs advertise. Staked PGOLD earns more PGOLD, which the docs say comes from redemption fees and trading fees. With almost no outside holders and almost no trading, those fees are close to nil. Any reward the issuer pays must therefore come from new tokens or from the issuer’s own pocket, and the docs do not say which.

Who controls it

On Arbitrum, PGOLD is a plain OpenZeppelin ERC-20 behind a transparent proxy. The verified source (PGOLDToken, Sourcify exact match) gives the owner, 0x142a…bab4, three powers. `mint` sends any amount to any address. `burnFrom` calls `_burn` on any holder’s balance with no approval. `setBlackList` blocks transfers to or from listed addresses. The blacklist switch was on when we read the contract on 2026-09-23. The owner is an ordinary account with no code, so one private key holds all three powers. A second single key, 0x7e5c…3986, owns the proxy admin contract, 0x50ea…e9ce, and can replace the token’s code.

On Ethereum, PGOLD is a Chainlink FactoryBurnMintERC20, which cannot be upgraded. The same key 0x142a…bab4 is its owner and CCIP admin, and 0xf306…810a holds the mint and burn roles. Its `burn(address,uint256)` routes through `burnFrom`, which spends the holder’s allowance. The issuer therefore cannot seize tokens on Ethereum, and the file lists no clawback there. The docs also list a Pharos contract that Ketju cannot yet read. CoinGecko lists an ApeChain contract that the docs do not. It has a different owner and held 0.05 PGOLD, so we do not treat it as the issuer’s.

Eligibility and withdrawals

Anyone may hold and transfer PGOLD. The docs do not mention US persons and exclude only sanctioned places. The issuer’s app sells and buys PGOLD against its own PUSD stablecoin at the Chainlink XAU/USD price less 0.04%. The issuer trades out of its own inventory and mints or burns no tokens. PUSD converts to USDT after a source-of-funds check within one or two days. These trades are the issuer dealing with its customer; they are not redemptions, and the docs say inventory is capped per chain.

Physical redemption needs KYC and at least 32.15 PGOLD, one kilogram, about $140,000 at the 2026-09-23 price. The holder enters a WhatsApp number and email and waits for customer support to arrange an “offline pickup” in Hong Kong. The issuer has not published the fee schedule that the terms cite. Section 14 lets the issuer suspend minting and redemption for compliance, security, or market reasons. Elsewhere, the docs limit physical redemption to “Institutional and qualified holders.”

Comparison

PGOLD falls short of PAX Gold on every point that makes a gold token worth holding. PAXG holders have a warehouse receipt for specific London Good Delivery bars that an OCC-supervised trust bank holds. Paxos also publishes a monthly KPMG attestation and a redemption fee. PGOLD holders have a sentence of intent and a one-day count of half the stated metal with no weights checked. Their issuer says it owns the gold, and a single key can burn their tokens. A physically backed gold ETF keeps its price near the metal because authorized participants create and redeem shares. PGOLD lacks that process and adds issuer, custody, and key risk. Ketju will review PGOLD again if the terms grant holders title to allocated metal and an independent attestation weighs and assays metal covering the full supply. The issuer would also need to name the custodians and move the Arbitrum powers from single keys to a published multisig or timelock.

Sources

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

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.

ChainVerdictFreezeWhat it can do
Arbitrum OneApproved with limits Mixed control a single sequencer orders more than 99% of transactions, and admin keys can upgrade bridge contracts on a timelock of about 7 days.
EthereumApproved No freeze key Ethereum has no sequencer, no upgrade key and no operator who can be compelled to act; rule changes require social consensus.
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