Campbell R. Harvey is Professor of Finance at Duke University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as President of the American Finance Association in 2016. Harvey is Director of Research and a Partner at Research Affiliates, LLP, who oversees more than $190 billion in investment products. He also serves as the Investment Strategy Advisor to Man Group PLC, the world’s largest, publicly listed, global hedge fund provider. In 2022, he served as Digital Asset Advisor to BlackRock. His coauthored book DeFi and the Future of Finance was named one of the Best Books by Bloomberg-BusinessWeek. His weekly podcast is called Cam Harvey Through the Noise.
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Abstract
The recent introduction of tokenized gold raises some provocative questions. Is it possible to revive elements of a gold standard in the digital age? What are the economic implications of having a competing medium of exchange? Tokenized gold is much different from current gold ETFs in that it can be used for everyday payments as well as investment purposes. Tokenized gold can also produce a rate of return when deployed as a staking asset or when it is lent. Intriguingly, this new gold standard does not require any central bank intervention - consumers and investors choose to use it. Although the market is in its infancy, our research shows that tokenized gold closely tracks traditional gold benchmarks - even in times of market stress like the 10 standard deviation drawdown in the price of gold on January 30, 2026. In contrast to futures markets, tokenized gold provides 24/7 trading, providing liquidity in times of stress, such as the strike on Iran over the weekend of February 28, 2026. In addition, tokenized gold is already integrated into decentralized financial market structure. This innovation is not without risks, including redemption frictions, legal and custodial risks, and blockchain-related vulnerabilities. Overall, gold tokenization enables continuous, fractional, global exchange while offering an opt-in digital gold standard.
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