CoinDesk
DBS Bank will start offering tokenized gold trading to its retail customers in the second half of 2026, listing DBS Physical Gold Tokens on its digibank platform. Each token is backed by one gram of physical gold held in a dedicated DBS vault in Singapore, and the bank will tokenize, issue, distribute and manage the product entirely in-house. DBS said it is also exploring listing the tokens on its DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), a venue that until now has been limited to accredited investors and institutions.
Why it matters
The launch extends tokenization from DBS's institutional and wealth rails into a retail-facing app for the first time. "While our retail investors have been able to buy gold funds, access to physical gold has been largely available to only institutional and accredited investors," said James Tan, head of DBS' investment product and advisory unit. "DBS has offered physical gold investments to wealth clients since 2013, and we are now leveraging tokenisation to broaden access, enabling more retail customers to invest in gold in a safe and meaningful way." The bank is choosing to do it all in-house — custody, issuance, distribution — rather than rent a third-party tokenization stack, a posture that signals how seriously the largest Singaporean bank treats the rails.
Market impact
DBS has been one of the more aggressive TradFi entrants into real-world-asset tokenization: in 2025 alone, the bank tokenized structured notes on Ethereum, listed sgBENJI — the token of Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund — and added Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin to DDEx. The retail gold token adds a new asset class to that lineup at a moment when physical gold holdings in the portfolios of DBS's wealthy clients have more than doubled over the past three years. With the SEC also weighing broader RWA frameworks and gold trading above $3,000/oz, a bank-issued, fully reserved gold token on a retail-facing app puts regulated TradFi tokenization in front of ordinary investors for one of the first times at scale.
Frequently asked questions
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What is DBS launching for retail customers?
DBS Bank will list DBS Physical Gold Tokens on its digibank app in the second half of 2026, letting retail customers trade tokens each backed by one gram of physical gold held in a dedicated DBS vault in Singapore.
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How is each DBS Physical Gold Token backed?
Each token represents one gram of physical gold stored in a dedicated DBS vault in Singapore. DBS said it will tokenize, issue, distribute and manage the product entirely in-house on bank-grade infrastructure.
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Will the gold token be available on DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx)?
DBS said it is also exploring listing the tokens on DDEx, its venue currently limited to accredited investors and institutions. The primary retail distribution channel is the digibank app.
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Why is DBS adding tokenized gold now?
Head of investment products James Tan said retail investors had access to gold funds but not physical gold, which had been limited to wealth and institutional clients since 2013. Physical gold holdings in DBS's wealthy-client portfolios have more than doubled over the past three years.
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What other tokenization has DBS done?
In 2025, DBS tokenized structured notes on Ethereum, listed sgBENJI — the token of Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund — and added Ripple's RLUSD dollar-pegged stablecoin to DDEx. The retail gold token extends that same in-house tokenization playbook.
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