Clear regulations

Address regulatory gaps for digital gold

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) recently issued an advisory, forbidding registered investment advisers from engaging in unregulated activities such as providing platforms for dealing in unregulated products, or otherwise facilitating such trades. While assets like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible token (NFT) do fall in this category, the regulator specifically mentioned digital gold. However, unlike cryptocurrencies and NFTs, digital gold consists of assets backed by the physical metal. The players in this market are all well-known, organised entities, including government-owned entities. The regulator has proposed an institutional framework for electronic gold trading exchanges but this is yet to be