The Securities and Alternate Board of India (Sebi), on Saturday, 8 November 2025, cautioned buyers towards shopping for unregulated merchandise like digital gold and gold-related on-line merchandise.
In a launch, the capital markets regulator stated it has noticed on-line platforms providing buyers digital asset choices akin to digital gold or e-gold merchandise. Nevertheless, these devices are being marketed in its place funding in bodily gold.
“It has come to the discover of SEBI that some digital/on-line platforms are providing buyers to put money into ‘Digital Gold/E-Gold Merchandise’. Digital Gold is being marketed in its place for funding in bodily gold,” stated Sebi.
No safety for digital gold?
Sebi knowledgeable the buyers that the safety mechanisms won’t be relevant for investments in these digital gold or e-gold merchandise, as they aren’t recognized as securities and aren’t regulated as commodity derivatives.
“Buyers/members are made conscious that not one of the investor safety mechanisms beneath securities market purview shall be accessible for investments in such Digital Gold/E-Gold merchandise,” Sebi knowledgeable buyers by way of its official announcement.
Nevertheless, the regulator additionally clarified that investments in gold and gold-related devices by way of varied regulated merchandise, akin to ETFs, Mutual funds, and so on., are protected by way of registered entities.
“Investments in these Sebi-regulated gold merchandise may be made by way of Sebi-registered intermediaries and are ruled by the regulatory framework prescribed by Sebi,” stated the regulator.
The place do you purchase digital gold?
In keeping with knowledge collected from the Tata Group’s enterprise Caratlane, corporations at the moment are providing mobile-first digital gold choices the place folks can put money into shopping for gold utilizing their smartphones.
Digital gold is a technique of shopping for gold on-line which is backed by bodily gold held in safe and insured vaults. Nevertheless, in response to Sebi’s current notification, these things aren’t regulated beneath Sebi’s investor safety norms.
“It lets you make investments and monitor your holdings digitally, with the flexibleness to redeem them as cash or jewelry,” stated CaratLane in a weblog publish on their web site.
Corporations like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm, built-in with SafeGold, CaratLane, Tanishq and MMTC-PAMP web sites, are locations which supply potential consumers the choice to put money into these on-line gold choices.
Buyers must also bear in mind that purchasing digital gold merchandise additionally comes with items and companies tax (GST), capital positive factors tax, and short-term positive factors tax implications.
Learn all tales by Anubhav Mukherjee
Disclaimer: This story is for instructional functions solely. The views and suggestions above are these of particular person analysts or broking corporations, not Mint. We advise buyers to test with licensed consultants earlier than making any funding choices.
