Gold Capital Markets: Oro Labs

For the first time in history, gold investors can earn native yield on their holdings through a fully on-chain solution. Oro Labs founder Usman Saleem announced at Breakpoint 2025 that staked gold—the first yield primitive ever created for gold—will launch on Solana within weeks, fundamentally changing how the world's oldest financial asset operates in digital markets.

Summary

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Gold has served as a store of value for millennia and remains one of the largest financial asset classes globally. Yet despite its ubiquity, the capital markets infrastructure surrounding gold has remained fragmented, opaque, and painfully slow. Oro Labs is tackling this not as a product problem but as a fundamental market structure challenge, building the rails that will enable tokenized gold to function with the same composability and efficiency that crypto-native assets enjoy.

The announcement introduces two groundbreaking developments for the gold ecosystem. First, staked gold represents the first time yield has been made a native property of gold itself. Previously, earning any return on gold holdings required opaque, off-chain arrangements that were inaccessible to most investors. Staked gold changes this paradigm entirely, offering programmable yield starting at 3% APY that compounds directly on-chain where users can watch their holdings grow in real-time.

Beyond yield, Oro Labs is launching the Oro Redemption Network—a unified settlement system that addresses one of the most persistent problems in gold markets. Whether dealing with physical bullion or existing digital gold products, settlement has historically lacked standardization. The new network will enable token holders to redeem their gold across more than five global locations at launch, with plans to expand into major institutional gold hubs worldwide.

Key Points

The Market Structure Problem in Gold

Traditional gold markets suffer from structural inefficiencies that have persisted for decades despite gold's status as a premier global asset. Settlement happens through fragmented systems with no unified network, making cross-border transactions complicated and slow. Price discovery remains opaque, and earning any form of yield on gold holdings has required bespoke off-chain arrangements accessible only to sophisticated institutional players.

Oro Labs recognizes that tokenized gold products currently available have simply replicated these same problems in digital form—they offer no yield, no unified settlement mechanism, and lack the shared market primitives that would enable true DeFi composability. By building market infrastructure rather than just another gold-backed token, Oro aims to solve these fundamental issues at their root.

Staked Gold: Yield Becomes Native to Gold

The staked gold product represents a paradigm shift in how gold can function as a financial asset. For the first time, yield is being embedded as an intrinsic property of gold rather than something bolted on through external arrangements. Users can stake their gold tokens, swap them on-chain, and observe their holdings appreciate over time through a transparent, programmable mechanism.

Launching with a 3% annual yield, Oro Labs expects returns to grow as on-chain markets and yield opportunities around the base gold token expand. This creates a composable token that can integrate seamlessly into DeFi protocols, enabling gold to participate in the broader ecosystem of decentralized finance applications. The combination of gold's traditional store-of-value properties with real-world returns and programmable yield opens entirely new use cases for one of humanity's oldest financial instruments.

The Oro Redemption Network: Global Settlement Infrastructure

Physical gold and existing digital gold markets share a common problem: the absence of a unified settlement network. The Oro Redemption Network addresses this gap by creating standardized infrastructure for redeeming tokenized gold across multiple global locations. At launch, the network will support redemptions at more than five locations, with strategic expansion planned to encompass major institutional gold hubs worldwide.

The redemption process operates entirely on-chain, with users submitting requests and selecting their preferred redemption location through a transparent system. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain, providing an immutable history in user portfolios. This approach brings the efficiency and transparency of crypto rails to the traditionally opaque world of gold settlement.

Building Market Structures, Not Just Products

Oro Labs positions itself as infrastructure builders rather than simply another tokenized asset issuer. The company is developing yield markets, settlement markets, and credit markets around gold—all connected to distribution products designed to bring this utility to the everyday gold user. This comprehensive approach aims to create shared primitives that other developers and protocols can build upon.

By establishing these foundational market structures on Solana, Oro is creating an ecosystem where gold can finally operate with the same efficiency and composability as crypto-native assets. This infrastructure-first approach differentiates Oro from previous tokenized gold attempts and positions the project to become the backbone of gold-based DeFi.

Facts + Figures

• Staked gold will launch on Solana within the next few weeks, representing the first yield primitive for gold ever created

• Initial yield starts at 3% APY, with expectations to grow as on-chain markets develop

• The Oro Redemption Network launches with more than five global redemption locations

• Gold is described as one of the oldest and largest financial assets globally

• All redemption transactions are processed and recorded on-chain

• The platform combines gold exposure with real-world returns and programmable yield

• Oro Labs is building yield markets, settlement markets, and credit markets for gold

• Traditional gold yield arrangements are described as "off-chain bespoke arrangements which are opaque"

Top Quotes

• "This is not a product problem. It is a market structure problem."

• "Staked gold turns yield into a native property of gold itself."

• "If you wanted to earn a bit of yield on gold today, it would happen through off-chain bespoke arrangements which are opaque and possibly very difficult for most of you to get access to."

• "Staked gold combines not only gold exposure but real-world returns and programmable yield."

• "Oro is not just building new products on gold. It is building new market structures."

• "An important asset like gold needs a unified market that can enable new market primitives and shared primitives to be built on it."

• "Tokenized gold today represents the same problems that physical gold faces."

Questions Answered

Why can't I currently earn yield on my gold holdings easily?

Earning yield on gold has historically required navigating opaque, off-chain arrangements that are typically only accessible to institutional players with significant capital and connections. These bespoke deals lack transparency and standardization, making them difficult for retail investors to access or even understand. The traditional gold market simply wasn't built with yield generation as a native feature, treating gold purely as a store of value rather than a productive asset.

How does staked gold generate yield?

Staked gold generates yield by combining on-chain market activities with real-world returns in a programmable format. When users stake their gold tokens, they receive a yield-bearing token that appreciates over time through transparent, on-chain mechanisms. Starting at 3% APY, returns are expected to increase as the on-chain ecosystem around the base gold token matures and more yield-generating opportunities become available within the protocol.

What makes Oro's approach different from existing tokenized gold products?

While most tokenized gold products simply digitize gold ownership without solving underlying market structure problems, Oro Labs is building comprehensive infrastructure including yield markets, settlement markets, and credit markets. Existing tokenized gold offers no native yield, no unified settlement, and limited composability with DeFi protocols. Oro addresses all three issues simultaneously, creating shared primitives that enable gold to function as a fully composable DeFi asset.

How does the redemption network work?

The Oro Redemption Network allows users to convert their gold tokens back to physical gold through a fully on-chain process. Users submit a redemption request, select from available global locations, and the transaction is processed and recorded on the blockchain. This creates a transparent, verifiable record of all redemptions while enabling access to physical gold across multiple international locations, starting with more than five hubs at launch.

Why build this on Solana?

Solana's high-speed, low-cost infrastructure makes it ideal for building the kind of market structures Oro Labs envisions. Real-time yield accrual, instant settlement, and seamless DeFi composability all require a blockchain that can handle high transaction volumes without prohibitive fees. Solana's architecture enables the responsive user experience necessary for gold to compete with crypto-native assets in DeFi applications.

Who benefits from staked gold?

Staked gold benefits anyone holding gold who wants their assets to generate returns without sacrificing exposure to gold's price movements. Previously, this combination was only available through complex institutional arrangements. Now, retail investors can access yield on gold through a simple staking mechanism while maintaining full on-chain transparency and the ability to integrate their holdings into broader DeFi strategies.