SilverTimes Token (STT)

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.

STT is an Ethereum token meant to track one troy ounce of silver. It launched in July 2026; 32,772 STT were outstanding on 2026-09-23, about $2.1 million, matching the 1,019.3 kg of silver bars Brink’s Hong Kong reports holding. All of it was minted on two days in July. No legal document says who owes the holder anything. The white paper names no issuer and says the silver sits in an “Orphan Trust” for holders, but names no trustee and publishes no deed; a later page says SilverTimes only “intends” to use a trustee. The company’s own reports call STT Assets Limited the issuer. The site carries two versions of the same Brink’s certificate, dated 15 May 2026 with the same reference, one saying the silver is held for STT Assets Limited and one saying Best Power Development Limited. On chain, an enforcer multisig can move any holder’s tokens past the pause and the blocklist. The assessment is adverse.

Research triggers: events that reopen the assessment or shelf decision
• SilverTimes publishes a trust deed naming the trustee and the holders as beneficiaries, and binding terms naming the issuer
• Brink’s confirms directly which company holds the silver, or an independent auditor reports on it
• The enforcer multisig force-transfers a balance, or the implementation or admin changes
• Supply rises above the silver in the latest report, or a monthly report is missed

The research file

What the holder owns

The white paper says “the beneficiary ownership of silver belongs to STT token holders” through an orphan trust, and that the silver is owned by “a subsidiary of a TCSP-licensed Trust in Hong Kong.” An orphan trust is a real structure: a licensed trust company holds shares in a vehicle on charitable or purpose trust, so the vehicle belongs to no sponsor and its assets stay out of the sponsor’s insolvency. It works only if the deed exists and names the beneficiaries. SilverTimes publishes neither the deed nor the trust company’s name, page 19 of the same paper says it “intends to use a trustee company structure,” and the About page says SilverTimes tokenizes silver “synthetically.” No document calls STT a security or denies it.

The custody record points elsewhere. The July transparency report says Brink’s holds the bars “for the exclusive account of STT Assets Limited,” a Hong Kong company the report labels issuer. A holder therefore relies on an unnamed trust owning a company that Brink’s treats as the owner of the silver. Without the deed there is no way to say whether the holder is a beneficiary or an unsecured creditor of STT Assets Limited.

The two certificates

The standalone Brink’s holding certificate on silvertimes.io, dated 15 May 2026, reference AG42840, says the consignment “is being held for the account of Best Power Development Limited.” The copies of the same certificate inside the June and July transparency reports read “STT Assets Limited” in that sentence, with small wording changes; both show STT Assets Limited as account holder in the header and the same Brink’s stamps. The standalone PDF’s metadata shows it was produced in Microsoft Word on 19 May 2026. Ketju does not know which text Brink’s issued. A custody letter is the only evidence the silver exists, and two versions of it name two owners.

How minting and redemption work

Minting takes KYC at designated facilities and, per the docs, one ton of silver, at a 1% fee. Redemption is for Good Delivery bars “through designated redemption channels,” at 0.35% plus delivery costs, in 3 to 5 business days, subject to minimums the documents do not give. The docs say the silver is at Brink’s London; the custody letters say Brink’s Hong Kong. Holders below the unstated minimum sell on Coinstore or in a Uniswap pool.

Who controls the contract

STT is an upgradeable proxy whose admin belongs to a 4-of-6 multisig. The implementation, verified on Blockscout and audited by Beosin, has a blocklist run by a single key, a pause run by another single key, mint and burn roles held by a 2-of-3 multisig, and `forceTransfer`, held by the 4-of-6 enforcer multisig, which moves any holder’s tokens “that bypass pause and blocklist checks.” A fee manager can set a transfer fee in basis points. The documents tell holders none of this.

Comparison and decision

Against a silver ETF, STT has no named issuer in its own offering documents, no trust deed, custody letters that disagree on the account holder, and an enforcer that can take balances. The assessment reopens if SilverTimes publishes the trust deed and names the trustee and issuer in binding terms, and Brink’s confirms directly which company holds the account.

Sources

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

• SilverTimes Token white paper v9.2 (July 2026) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: orphan trust, unnamed trust company, intends to use a trustee, KYC to mint, fees
• SilverTimes Transparency Report STT-TR-2026-JUL (issued 20 August 2026) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: STT Assets Limited as issuer, silver held for STT Assets Limited
• Brink’s Hong Kong holding certificate, 15 May 2026 (standalone PDF) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: held for Best Power Development Limited
• Beosin: SilverTimes smart contract audit (16 July 2026) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: enforcer force transfers, blocklist, pause, upgradeable
• SilverTimes docs: FAQ · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: one ton to mint, Brink’s London

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.