Research summary
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.
Observable review triggers
- An independent audit firm publishes an attestation of the DGLD bar list against token supply, on a stated schedule
- The Ethereum and Base admin, minter, burner and proxy-admin powers move from single keys to a multisig or timelock
- Gold Token SA names a custodian outside the MKS PAMP group, or moves the gold out of Castel San Pietro
- Gold Token SA blacklists an address, recovers a balance, burns tokens outside a delivery, or upgrades a contract
- Gold Token SA opens or closes DGLD to US persons, or a regulator acts against Gold Token SA or MKS PAMP
Facts on file
- Research assessment
- Adverse
- Client selection
- Not considered
- Exposure
- tokenized commodity
- Chains examined
- Ethereum, Base, Solana
- Instruments
- DGLD
- Reviewed
- Next review