Serenity’s dual-token gold framework aims to build institutional rails for on-chain commodities.For years, “tokenized gold” has sounded more like a marketing slogan than a genuine threat to the way global commodities markets work. A handful of gold-backed coins gathered modest liquidity, but they never broke out of the crypto niche or moved the needle for institutional finance.
Serenity Labs is betting that changes now. The regulation-aligned security and digital infrastructure firm has unveiled a multi-billion-dollar dual-tokenization framework for precious metals, built with Chainlink Labs,Zoniqx and C-Gold Technologies — a consortium that spans oracles, tokenization infrastructure, and bullion expertise. The ambition is not to launch “yet another gold token,” but to set an institutional standard for how physical metals are brought on-chain, governed, and used at scale.
If it works, this could become the plumbing behind the next generation of gold-backed products — from on-chain funds to BRICS-style digital currencies.
From Speculative Coins to Institutional Rails
Today’s commodity tokens are mostly single-layer instruments. They might track the price of gold, but they don’t solve the full stack of problems institutions care about: sourcing, vaulting, verification, lifecycle governance, and interoperability.
Serenity’s framework tries to do all of that at once.
At the heart of the system is a patent-pending Dual Tokenization Architecture. Rather than collapsing everything into one asset, Serenity splits the economics and utility into two coordinated layers:
- The commodity layer: tokens representing verified, audited physical gold with defined redemption rights, designed for institutional balance sheets and sovereign programs.
- The utility layer: a free-floating digital token algorithmically linked to the commodity token, built for staking, yield participation, and on-chain services, the part that DeFi and fintechs can plug into without compromising the metal backing.
Together, the two-token system creates a loop: real-world gold generates on-chain utility, while on-chain activity feeds demand for the underlying metal. Serenity’s utility token, $RWS, becomes the “service fuel” across the ecosystem.
For institutions, this matters. The gap between “trust us, the gold is there,” and cryptographic proof is the difference between a pilot and something you can build a business around.
A Half-Billion-Dollar Testbed
This is not launching as theory. In its initial phase, the consortium supports the tokenization of up to 100,000 ounces of physical gold — roughly $500 million at current prices.
Each tokenized unit is structured to be:
- Fully matched with physically deliverable gold
- Stored in regulated vaults under institutional custody
- Independently audited
- Verified through cryptographic proof-of-reserve
Every on-chain representation of gold is continuously reconcilable against metal in vaults, not just at issuance but throughout the asset’s lifecycle. For large asset managers and sovereign vehicles, that transparency is now table stakes.
The blueprint is designed to extend beyond gold to silver and other strategic metals.
The Consortium
Serenity Labs orchestrates the architecture, security, and real-world services layer, building on its biometric authentication and digital asset inheritance protocols.
Chainlink Labs brings the data and interoperability fabric. Its Proof of Reserve delivers cryptographic verification of vault reserves, while its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) synchronizes state across networks. Chainlink works with Swift, Euroclear, UBS, and ANZ, signaling this architecture has passed institutional scrutiny.
Zoniqx, a Silicon Valley tokenization specialist, provides lifecycle governance. Its software manages issuance, compliance, and transfer restrictions across jurisdictions. Most projects stall on day two when they hit fragmented rules. Zoniqx is designed to prevent that.
C-Gold Technologies closes the physical loop, handling procurement, vaulting coordination, and audit integration across regulated vaults. C-Gold operates Great American Bullion and Jefferson Gold Group, and just announced a separate $43 million gold tokenization deal with Lumia, proof real inventory is moving through their system.
Taken together, these four players look less like a crypto project and more like a vertically integrated attempt to define a market standard.
The Tether Shadow and the BRICS Factor
The announcement lands less than two weeks after Tether acquired a 12% stake in Gold.com for $150 million, a deal aimed at distribution, getting Tether Gold into more wallets.
Serenity’s move plays a different game. It’s building issuance infrastructure. The rails that could let banks, asset managers, or sovereign wealth funds issue their own gold-backed assets.
The timing coincides with growing interest from emerging economies. BRICS nations have been quietly developing alternatives to dollar-dominated settlement systems. In January, they unveiled a prototype gold-backed digital unit on Cardano for cross-border settlement between governments. That project represents countries accounting for more than a third of global GDP.
Those same countries need infrastructure to issue and manage gold-backed digital assets. Serenity’s framework is explicitly designed for “sovereign-adjacent initiatives.”
Gold has re-emerged as a strategic asset in a multipolar world. If it’s going to sit at the center of digital settlement systems, the rails need to look like institutional market infrastructure, not retail crypto.
What Changes If This Works
The first phase targets 100,000 ounces of gold. That’s real scale, not a proof-of-concept. Silver is next, then other strategic metals.
The bigger question is whether this changes how institutions think about commodity holdings. If gold can generate yield while sitting in a vault — if it can be staked, lent, or used as collateral in DeFi, then the calculus of commodity investing shifts.
Gold has always been a defensive asset. You held it because it didn’t do anything. If it can do something while you hold it, the opportunity cost disappears.
Serenity’s CEO, Venket Naga, casts the initiative as a shift from “isolated digital instruments” to durable financial plumbing. The real test will be whether large issuers start using the framework to launch real products: tokenized gold funds, structured notes, collateral pools, and cross-border settlement rails.
The ingredients align with what institutional investors have been asking for: clear redemption structures tied to physical metal, familiar service providers on data and custody, and a modular design that lets them tap the commodity layer while fintechs experiment on the utility layer.
For now, Serenity’s framework enters a crowded but under-delivered field. Tokenized treasuries, private credit, and commodities have all been touted as the “next big thing.” What’s been missing is a standard that both Wall Street and emerging-market policymakers can live with.
Serenity, Chainlink, Zoniqx, and C-Gold are betting that gold, the oldest monetary asset in the world, might be the place where that standard finally emerges.
