A new report by the World Gold Council and Boston Consulting Group estimates that digital gold, currently valued at $45–$55bn, could unlock up to $700bn of latent demand.
Gold granules are visible at Valcambi SA, a gold refiner and bar manufacturer, in Balerna, a southern Swiss town. Image credit: Swiss-Gold/Reuters/Michael Buholzer
The report points to substantial untapped appetite among retail investors, with nearly nine in 10 surveyed saying they would consider digital gold under the right conditions.
Breaking the barriers
That $700bn opportunity represents the report’s estimate of total latent demand that could be released if today’s barriers to adoption were removed, rather than a near-term forecast.
By comparison, the report’s five-year base case sees digital gold growing by around 27% a year to $270–$280bn if barriers fall faster.
Meanwhile, momentum is already building as financial markets undergo a broader digital transformation, bringing tokenised investment products increasingly into the mainstream.
Tokenised gold, one segment of the digital gold market alongside vaulted digital gold, has grown fivefold in value since late 2024 to around $6bn.
Cumulative spot trading volumes in tokenised gold exceeded $90bn in the first quarter of 2026, more than in the whole of 2025.
Four key barriers hold investors back: trust, access, utility, and cost. Above all, trust is the swing factor.
To build confidence in digital gold, investors point to stronger consumer protections, transparent proof of backing, accessible redemption and clearer regulation. Access is another important barrier to address.
Maxwell Akalaare Adombila 18 Mar 2026 An entry point
Where digital gold is sold through familiar channels such as super-apps, payment platforms, and banking apps, as in China, India, and Indonesia, investors who hold it are currently up to seven times more likely than in less mature markets.
If those barriers are solved, the gold market could expand, not just redistribute demand. About 65% of latent demand comes from people who do not yet own gold.
Among today’s digital gold investors, 52% held no gold before their first digital purchase, and 92% have since bought other forms of gold, underscoring the report’s finding that digital gold can serve as an entry point to the wider gold market.
Even allowing for some movement between existing gold products, the base case points to around $95bn of genuinely new demand for gold by 2031.
Younger investors are leading the way: awareness of digital gold reaches 50% among 25–34-year-olds, compared with 23% among those aged 55 and over.
