{"text":[[{"start":8.54,"text":"The value of the digital gold market has tripled since the start of 2025 to reach as high as $55bn, as the industry seeks to court younger investors to invest in more easily traded forms of the bullion."}],[{"start":22,"text":"The World Gold Council said on Monday that it expects digital gold to grow by about 27 per cent a year to up to $170bn by 2031 under its base-case scenario, as so-called tokenised investment products increasingly enter the mainstream."}],[{"start":38.44,"text":"A unit of ‘digital gold’ can be bought to correspond to a fraction of real, physical gold stored by a third-party provider or mint. This differs from a gold exchange-traded product in which the buyer holds shares in the fund."}],[{"start":52.24,"text":"The total value of the market is now about $45bn-$55bn, the WGC estimated through a survey of investors, equivalent to around 370 tonnes. This is about 8 per cent of global gold ETF holdings, the much more established form of investment in the precious metal. The WGC said this was an increase of 2.5-3 times since the start of last year."}],[{"start":76.8,"text":"More than 70 digital gold products have now launched worldwide, the WGC added, as investors have sought exposure to a metal that hit record highs at the start of this year before coming down about a fifth from its peak."}],[{"start":90.68,"text":"Cumulative spot trading volumes in tokenised gold exceeded $90bn in the first quarter of 2026, more than in the whole of 2025, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group."}],[{"start":102.64,"text":"The WGC has been attempting to bring digital gold to greater numbers of investors. While the value for many investors is the physical nature of gold as a store of wealth, some in the industry are concerned that rival assets such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins pegged to traditional assets are taking the attention of younger investors in particular."}],[{"start":122.92,"text":"The WGC said that younger investors have a high awareness of digital gold, which is often sold through social media apps, payment platforms and banking apps in China, India and Indonesia."}],[{"start":134.12,"text":"The global physically backed gold ETF market also recorded a record quarter in the three months to the end of September after two quarters of falling demand, underscoring the return of gold’s popularity given uncertainty and inflationary fears and with some investors taking advantage of the lower price."}],[{"start":151.16,"text":"David Tait, WGC chief executive, said that work was being done to create the infrastructure behind the market. “Significant investor interest in digital gold is clear, but demand cannot scale without the right infrastructure behind it.”"}],[{"start":166.56,"text":"Some gold-backed stablecoins have struggled in the past but the largest being traded — such as from the cryptocurrency exchange Tether — have reported strong growth since last year."}],[{"start":177.2,"text":"In May, Tether’s gold reserves were valued at $19.8bn at the end of March after record demand in the first quarter, and the market value of its tokenised gold product Tether Gold reached $3.3bn."}],[{"start":198.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792466557_1295.mp3"}