Tokenised gold could be exempt from fund regulations under FCA proposal - Financial Times

The Financial Times reports that the UK's Financial Conduct Authority has proposed treating tokenised gold as exempt from certain fund regulations. Tokenised gold refers to digital tokens backed by physical bullion, allowing investors to hold and transfer claims on gold on a blockchain rather than through traditional fund structures. Under the proposal, such products could fall outside the regulatory perimeter that normally applies to collective investment schemes, potentially reducing compliance burdens for issuers and broadening access for investors.

The market relevance lies in what this signals about regulatory treatment of real-world assets on distributed ledgers. Gold has long served as a store of value and a hedge, and tokenising it aims to combine that familiarity with the efficiency of digital settlement. If the exemption is confirmed, it could encourage more issuers to launch tokenised commodity products in the UK and shape how other jurisdictions approach similar questions.

What to watch: the final scope of the exemption, whether consumer protections or custody rules still apply, and how traditional gold funds respond. The proposal is not yet law, and its details will determine whether tokenised gold becomes a mainstream route to bullion exposure or remains a niche structure.