In brief
- TRIO and Swarm Markets launched tokenized gold bars on Bitcoin via the Ordinals protocol.
- The tokens trade like other Ordinals, but redemption requires KYC through Swarm’s compliance process.
- The project follows TRIO’s support for Runestone and Spartacus, which published the Afghan War Logs on-chain.
Gold bars have landed on Bitcoin. A new token project is inscribing the serial numbers of physical bullion stored in a secured vault directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain, letting people purchase and trade the rights to real gold.
TRIO, a Bitcoin-native marketplace created by OrdinalsBot, is behind the tokenized gold offering. The company announced Monday it has teamed with Swarm Markets to launch the Gold on Bitcoin collection, using the NFT-like Ordinals protocol to attach metadata from gold bars stored in a Brinks vault in London.
“Every gold bar in Brinks has a serial number,” OrdinalsBot co-founder Brian Laughlan told Decrypt. “All you really need to do is attach that serial number to a digital asset—in this case, an Ordinal. It’s baked into the metadata. And that’s it: you’ve now got a tokenized version of gold.”
Each token, Laughlan explained, is tied to the current price of a single ounce of gold. The tokens can be traded like any other Ordinals asset, but redemption of the physical bars requires know-your-customer verification through Swarm. KYC is necessary because physical gold is a regulated asset, and its transfer must comply with anti-money laundering and identity verification laws. After KYC is complete, the gold bars can then be sent to their owner.
“That’s the reality of real-world assets,” he said. “They exist in the real world, so real-world laws apply.”
OrdinalsBot launched TRIO in December. The platform supports trading of Ordinals along with Bitcoin meme coins in the Runes and BRC-20 token standards.
Notable Ordinals collections include Runestone, which is tied to the DOG meme coin on Bitcoin, and Project Spartacus, which published the leaked U.S. military documents known as the Afghan War Logs onto the original blockchain.
The launch comes as tokenized gold emerges as one of the most active corners of the real-world asset market. By turning vaulted bullion into tradable digital tokens, projects aim to merge the reliability of gold with the accessibility of crypto token trading.
Ethereum-based tokens like Tether Gold (XAUT) and Pax Gold (PAXG) already account for billions in on-chain value. Real-world asset protocols—including those offering tokenized gold—hold more than $26 billion in total value, per data from RWA.xyz.
Laughlan said launching the gold tokens on Bitcoin was a deliberate choice, pointing to its longstanding reputation as “digital gold.”
The project is starting small. Just six single-ounce gold bars have been tokenized so far, Laughlan explained, but more can be minted if demand grows. The hope, he said, is to establish a standard for how gold is inscribed via Ordinals so other custodians can adopt the same format.
Laughlan said the appeal of tokenized gold on Bitcoin might be as symbolic as it is practical.
“There’s something poetic about putting real gold on Bitcoin,” Laughlan said.
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