The World Gold Council ( WGC ) has unveiled plans for a new market infrastructure to accelerate the development of digital gold and integrate the asset more fully into modern financial systems.

In a white paper co-authored with Boston Consulting Group ( BCG ), titled Digital Gold: The Case for a Shared Infrastructure, the industry body outlines a framework it calls “Gold as a Service”.

The proposed platform would link the physical custody of gold with the digital systems used to issue and manage gold-backed financial products.

The initiative seeks to address structural constraints that have limited the growth of digital gold despite years of technological progress in trading, clearing, and record-keeping.

While digital gold products, including tokenized forms of the metal, already exist, the market remains fragmented and operationally complex.

Gold as a Service aims to standardize key processes across the ecosystem, including custody coordination, reconciliation, compliance and redemption. By establishing common infrastructure and operating models, the platform could simplify product issuance and management while improving interoperability with broader financial systems.

Gold as collateral

Under the proposed framework, digital gold products would become more fungible, allowing them to function as a single asset with consistent legal rights and value across platforms. The shared infrastructure would also incorporate continuous reconciliation and auditing to strengthen trust in digital gold by ensuring clear proof of physical backing and transparent ownership.

If implemented, the platform could broaden gold’s financial utility. Improved liquidity and standardization may allow the metal to move beyond its traditional role as a store of value and portfolio diversifier, potentially enabling new use cases such as pledging gold as collateral.

“Financial services are undergoing a rapid and pervasive digital transformation and gold must also evolve to maintain its role in the global financial system. Gold as a Service is the latest step in the World Gold Council’s digital gold innovation programme, designed to strengthen trust, transparency and market efficiency,” says WGC chief executive officer David Tait.

“Shared infrastructure can help gold become more accessible, more easily traded and fully integrated into modern financial systems, ensuring it remains as relevant tomorrow as it has been for millennia.”

The World Gold Council is now calling on market participants, technology innovators and institutions across and beyond the gold industry to contribute to the development of the shared infrastructure.