PR No.70/2025

Caution to public regarding dealing in ‘Digital Gold’

SEBI has enabled investments in gold and gold related instruments through various SEBI regulated gold products. These are exchange traded commodity derivative contracts, Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) offered by Mutual Funds and Electronic Gold Receipts (EGRs) tradeable on stock exchanges. Investments in these SEBI regulated gold products can be made through SEBI registered intermediaries and are governed by the regulatory framework prescribed by SEBI.

It has come to the notice of SEBI that some digital/online platforms are offering investors to invest in ‘Digital Gold/E-Gold Products’. Digital Gold is being marketed as an alternative for investment in physical gold.

In this context, it is informed that such digital gold products are different from SEBI regulated gold products as they are neither notified as securities nor regulated as commodity derivatives. They operate entirely outside the purview of SEBI. Such digital gold products may entail significant risks for investors and may expose investors to counterparty and operational risks.

Investors / participants are made aware that none of the investor protection mechanisms under securities market purview shall be available for investments in such Digital Gold/ E-Gold products.

Digital gold investments lack SEBI regulation, exposing investors to counterparty and operational risks without market protections. Investments marketed as Digital Gold are not SEBI-regulated securities or commodity derivatives and operate outside SEBI's regulatory framework; unlike exchange-traded commodity contracts, Gold ETFs and Electronic Gold Receipts offered through registered intermediaries, digital gold exposes investors to counterparty and operational risks and does not benefit from securities market investor protection mechanisms.