The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to the latest research report jointly released by the World Gold Council and Boston Consulting, the current digital gold market is 45 billion to 55 billion US dollars, which can release up to 700 billion US dollars in potential demand in the future. The report shows that individual investors have a large amount of untapped investment intentions. Nearly 90% of respondents said they would consider allocating digital gold if conditions are appropriate.
The report's five-year benchmark scenario forecast shows that the digital gold market is expected to grow at an average annual growth rate of about 27%, and the market size will reach 160 billion to 170 billion US dollars by 2031. If more barriers are removed more quickly, the market size is expected to rise to $270 billion to $280 billion over the same period.
Digital gold market size under different scenarios from 2026 to 2031
Market Size (billion USD)
The financial market is undergoing a comprehensive digital transformation, tokenized investment products are increasingly entering the mainstream, and the development momentum of digital gold continues to increase.
The digital gold market is divided into two categories: treasury managed digital gold and tokenized gold. Since the end of 2024, the market value of tokenized gold has increased fivefold to about $6 billion. In the first quarter of 2026, the cumulative volume of tokenized gold spot transactions exceeded the full year of 2025, exceeding US$90 billion.
The report points out that it is not lack of investment interest that prevents investors from participating in the digital gold market, but that there are four key barriers: trust, channels, application scenarios, and costs. Among them, trust is the key deciding factor.
Investors believe that the following are the most important conditions for strengthening their confidence in digital gold: strengthening investor protection; providing transparent proof of support for physical gold; establishing convenient redemption channels; and further clarifying regulatory rules.
Channels are another obstacle that needs to be solved urgently: in markets such as China, India, and Indonesia, digital gold relies on well-known channels such as super apps, payment platforms, bank clients, etc., and local digital gold investors account for up to seven times that of immature markets.
Addressing these barriers is expected to expand the overall size of the gold market, rather than simply redistributing existing demand. Research shows that about 65% of potential demand comes from groups that have not yet allocated gold; among existing digital gold investors, 52% never held any gold assets before purchasing digital gold for the first time, and 92% of them subsequently purchased other gold categories. This result confirms the report's core judgment: digital gold can be an entry point for investors to enter the broader gold market.
Even considering that some investors may switch from other gold investment products to digital gold, the benchmark scenario forecast shows that by 2031, digital gold is still expected to bring about US$95 billion in new demand to the overall gold market.
Young investors are leading the trend: 50 percent of people aged 25 to 34 are aware of digital gold, while those aged 55 and over are only 23 percent aware.
David Tait (David Tait), CEO of the World Gold Council, said, “Investors have shown strong investment interest in digital gold, but without supporting supporting infrastructure, it is difficult to achieve large-scale expansion of related demand. This is the value of 'Gold as a Service' (Gold as a Service). This shared infrastructure is still under development and is committed to helping issuers more efficiently launch digital gold products with both market competitiveness and regulatory compliance, and to provide them with gold procurement, escrow and compliance management capabilities.”
Urs Rahne, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting, said, “We carried out this study with the idea that gold is expected to become the most reliable digital asset in the world. This is not about putting aside its physical attributes; it is on this attribute that it is possible to achieve it. “This study has further strengthened our confidence in this huge market opportunity and made us see more clearly what are the key conditions needed to fully unlock the full potential of the digital gold market.”