However, the segment remains outside the purview of regulators, including the Reserve Bank and Securities and Exchange Board of India. Sebi even warned in November 2025 that digital gold products were different from Sebi regulated gold products and could entail significant risks for investors.

  Now a domestic broking firm wants to offer investors a regulated alternative to buy gold digitally.

  Dhan on Wednesday, April 29, launched a new investment product ‘Gold Vault’ where an investor can buy gold and silver through its app, at live prices linked to MCX (Multi-Commodity Exchange).

  Traditionally, buying gold in India has had its own trade-offs between fair pricing, secure ownership, authenticity of gold or silver and lack of regulatory frameworks when it comes to digital gold.  

  According to Dhan, its product operates entirely within Sebi’s capital markets regulatory framework, giving investors a compliant way to buy physical gold and silver coins or assets.

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How does Dhan’s Gold Vault work?

  Anyone who has an account with Dhan can buy gold or silver futures contracts at live exchange rates. The gold or silver the user buys is settled through the commodity exchange MCX and its clearing corporation MCXCCL. There is no markup or hidden spreads on the price.

  Once the gold or silver contracts are physically settled, they are delivered and stored in exchange regulated and MCX – partnered vaults via a commodity receipt identification system. According to Dhan officials, these are the same institutional-grade facilities used by large financial players that are now available for retail investors.

  When the user needs the physical gold, he/she may simply request a delivery and the physical gold will be delivered to the doorstep. Dhan says this will be available in almost 457 towns across the country.

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 What are the costs?

  Like any other investment product like equity or mutual fund, there are charges that an investor would incur here.

  The broking firm itself will charge a fee of Rs 20 per transaction, irrespective of the quantity of gold or silver you buy. Additionally, there will be a GST on transactions and the user will have to pay annual charges for the storage in vaults (around Rs 50 per gram per year).

  Also, the logistics partner will charge handling and delivery charges when you actually get the asset physically delivered to your home.

  Despite the charges, Dhan official insist the total cost that a user will incur will be 3-4 per cent cheaper than what he/she would incur when buying gold via legitimate channels.

 Why has Dhan launched this product?

  Jay Prakash Gupta, the founder and chief operating officer of Dhan pointed that the MCX infrastructure for physical gold settlements had existed for years. This is the first time that any broker has designed a product from a retail individual investor perspective, he noted.

  “By routing every purchase through actual MCX futures settlement and MCXCCL clearing, we have eliminated the structural risks that have quietly plagued digital gold products in India. The price is exchange-benchmarked, the delivery is physically settled, and the storage is institutionally regulated,” he said.

  Investors should note that you can’t buy fractional gold here. Since, it essentially involves buying gold futures on MCX, you can buy in standard lot sizes like Gold Mini (100 grams), Gold Guinea (8 grams) and Gold petal (1 gram).

  Traders on Dhan or any other platform are not buying futures necessarily for taking delivery, noted Gupta. Further, he pointed that one typically pays a certain fraction of the contract value, then has to worry about the mark-to-market settlements (MCX settles gold positons daily. If a price moves against a trader’s position, it could result in losses and you will then have to add more funds to the ledger), and also needs to be worried about when the delivery intention is to be given.

  In this product, you enter the contract, paying the full value of the unit you want to buy, providing clarity that it will be for delivery. It will reflect in your account when the contract expires, and you can request physical delivery as and when it’s needed, added Gupta.

  “By combining exchange-led liquidity and price discovery with regulated infrastructure, investors can now invest in gold via futures with confidence, backed by transparent pricing, settlement, secure vaulting and seamless delivery,” according to Praveena Rai, MD and CEO of MCX.

 Who can use this product?

  Currently, the Gold Vault product is available for all Dhan users. However, given that many other brokerages already offer commodities trading via MCX, if Dhan’s product gains traction, others may very well explore similar products in future.