London Bullion Market Association and the World Gold Council are collaborating to develop and implement an international system of gold bar integrity, chain of custody and provenance. Over time, this will help consumers, investors, and market participants to trust that their gold is genuine and has been responsibly and sustainably sourced.

 This initial phase will see two distributed ledger companies, aXedras and Peer Ledger, demonstrate how their technology can best deliver a global ecosystem that will create an immutable record of a gold bar’s place of origin and chain of custody. This blockchain-backed ledger will register and track bars, capturing the provenance and full transaction history. Over time, the plan is to encourage all major participants in the gold industry to adopt this technology, and add to the global ecosystem, so that all gold bars are registered and tracked across the entire supply journey from mine to vault, and ultimately to end consumers such as jewellery manufacturers. This will effectively digitise the global supply chain of gold bars. The Gold Bar Integrity Programme supports greater industry alignment to ensure the future growth of the international gold market.

Ruth Crowell, CEO, LBMA said, “The initiative announced today underlines the confidence that all participants in the market can have in the integrity and accountability of the gold they trade, and the gold they buy.” 

David Tait, CEO, World Gold Council said, “This transformative project is the first step towards a more aligned gold industry, where we work together to ensure a more accessible and transparent market. Consumers and investors want to know their gold has been responsibly and sustainably produced and tracing the origin of gold bars will help enforce the highest standards across the entire supply chain.” 

Jin Chang, MD & Global Head of Metals, CME Group said, “We welcome the introduction of the Gold Bar Integrity Programme, which will help further strengthen the integrity of the physical gold industry, as well as its investment and trading communities.”