DBS Bank has announced plans to launch tokenized gold backed by physical bars for retail customers in the second half of 2026, expanding a tokenization strategy that already includes digital money market funds and stablecoin services.
Summary
- DBS plans to launch tokenized gold for retail customers in the second half of 2026, with each token backed by 1 gram of physical gold stored in Singapore.
- The offering expands DBS’s tokenization efforts after the bank introduced tokenized structured notes, Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI funds token and Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin.
- Holdings of physical gold among DBS’s wealth clients have more than doubled over the past three years, according to the bank.
According to a statement from Singapore’s largest lender, the new product, called DBS Physical Gold Tokens, will be offered through its digibank platform. The bank is also evaluating a future listing on DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), which currently serves accredited and institutional investors.
Each token will represent 1 gram of physical gold stored in a dedicated DBS vault in Singapore. The bank said it would oversee the issuance, distribution, management and custody of the tokens through its own infrastructure.
Interest in physical gold has grown among the bank’s wealthy clients in recent years. DBS said physical gold holdings in heritage portfolios have more than doubled over the past three years.
Retail Gold Access Joins DBS Tokenization Campaign
Following a series of blockchain-based offerings, the planned launch adds another tokenized asset to the bank’s growing portfolio of digital assets. In 2025, DBS tokenized structured notes on Ethereum and subsequently partnered with Franklin Templeton and Ripple to offer tokenized money market fund products and stablecoin services to accredited and institutional investors through DDEx.
The initiative included the listing of Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI token, which represents units of a money market fund tokenized in US dollars, alongside Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin.
Additional plans linked to the offering included allowing customers to use tokenized fund units as collateral for financing arrangements, including repo transactions and lending structures in which DBS would act as custodian.
For retail investors, direct ownership of physical gold has traditionally been less accessible than investing through gold-linked funds.
“While our retail investors have been able to purchase gold funds, access to physical gold has largely been available only to institutional and accredited investors,” said James Tan, head of investment products and advisory at DBS.
“DBS has been offering physical gold investments to high-net-worth clients since 2013, and we are now leveraging tokenization to expand access, enabling more retail clients to invest in gold in a safe and meaningful way.”
With deployment planned for the second half of 2026, the bank brings a physical asset largely reserved for wealthier and institutional clients on a platform accessible to individual clients via tokenization.
