CoinDCX has added Tether Gold (XAUT) to its trading platform and rolled out a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) on the same asset starting at ₹100, the exchange said on August 27 in a communication shared exclusively with The Crypto Times.
The listing brings the largest tokenized gold product by market capitalization to Indian investors through a domestic venue, while placing an asset backed by physical bullion squarely inside the country’s Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) tax regime.
The exchange said the arrangement allows users to buy fractional exposure to gold held in Swiss vaults, either through spot trades or through recurring purchases that mirror the mechanics of mutual fund SIPs.
Each XAUT token corresponds to one fine troy ounce of gold. At international spot rates, one token is currently priced above ₹5.2 lakh, which is why the ₹100 SIP effectively purchases a fraction of a fraction of an ounce per installment.
“Indian investors have consistently demonstrated a strong affinity for gold as a long-term store of value,” said Mridul Gupta, Founding Partner at CoinDCX, in the statement. He said the SIP is intended to lower the entry point for blockchain-based real-world asset products.
What XAUT actually is
XAU₮ is issued by TG Commodities, S.A. de C.V., an El Salvador-based entity registered as a Stablecoin Issuer and Digital Asset Service Provider under the country’s Digital Asset Issuance Law. Tether Gold trades on Ethereum and TRON, while CoinMarketCap lists its market capitalization at about $2.82 billion as of publishing time.
Quarterly assurance reports from BDO Italia cover the underlying reserves, and holders of the Tether Gold token can, in principle, verify specific gold bar serial numbers through the issuer’s lookup system.
The tax layer for Indian investors
The classification question is particularly relevant for Indian investors. Under Section 115BBH of the Income-tax Act, income from the transfer of Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) is taxed at 30%, plus applicable surcharge and a 4% health and education cess. Section 194S also provides for 1% TDS on qualifying VDA transfers, subject to the applicable thresholds and conditions.
Losses from the transfer of VDAs cannot be set off against income from other sources or carried forward to subsequent years under Section 115BBH. Because XAUT is a token traded on a crypto exchange, its tax treatment would generally depend on whether it falls within the statutory definition of a VDA and the specific nature of the transaction.
That treatment sits at odds with how gold is otherwise taxed in India. Sovereign Gold Bonds attract no capital gains tax when held to maturity. Physical gold, digital gold, and gold ETFs held for the qualifying period now attract 12.5% long-term capital gains without indexation, following changes introduced in Budget 2024.
An investor buying XAUT for gold exposure on CoinDCX could therefore face the VDA tax regime rather than the capital-gains treatment applicable to some traditional gold investments. The precise tax outcome would depend on the legal classification of the token and the nature of the transaction.
CoinDCX’s move also lands at a moment when the industry is pushing for tax reform, and a parliamentary panel is running a formal study on virtual digital assets. Industry estimates cited during those discussions suggest that a majority of Indian crypto trading volume has already migrated to offshore venues since the 2022 tax regime came in.
Adding tokenized gold to the domestic market therefore raises a broader question over whether investors will accept the VDA tax framework for an asset designed to provide exposure to an asset traditionally taxed under a different framework.
Redemption is a path most Indian buyers will not take
Direct physical redemption of XAUT with the issuer requires a holder to accumulate at least 430 tokens, roughly one London Good Delivery bar, with delivery arranged through a Swiss address.
At current gold prices, that threshold works out to well over ₹22 crore before fees and transport. Investors putting away ₹100 a week are, in practical terms, buying a price-linked digital claim rather than a route to physical bullion. A cash settlement option exists, but it also runs through the issuer’s Switzerland-based process.
There is also a custody question. A retail user on CoinDCX does not hold XAUT in a self-custodied wallet by default. When assets are held through an exchange account, the investor is exposed to the operational and counterparty risks associated with the platform, in addition to any risks associated with the token issuer and the underlying structure.
That structure differs from a Sovereign Gold Bond, which is issued by the Reserve Bank of India and held through eligible securities accounts, and from a gold ETF, which is a regulated securities-market product subject to applicable disclosure and oversight requirements. The products are not directly equivalent.
Context around the listing
CoinDCX has moved through a difficult 2026. The exchange’s co-founders were briefly detained in a fraud case tied to a fake domain in March before being granted bail within 72 hours, after which the company announced a ₹100 crore Digital Suraksha Network for consumer protection.
The XAUT rollout fits a broader pivot toward tokenized real-world assets that co-founder Sumit Gupta had flagged earlier in the year, when he said the exchange was testing products designed to give Indian users fractional access to global assets.
The wider RWA sector provides context for the timing. Tokenized real-world assets reached $44.7 billion in market capitalization as of August 26, according to Token Terminal data, with commodities accounting for $7.7 billion. Tokenized gold trading volumes hit a record $90.7 billion earlier in 2026, with XAUT and Paxos Gold together accounting for close to 89% of that activity.
The gap the listing walks into
Indian gold prices have run past ₹1.69 lakh per 10 grams for 24 karat as of late August 2026, and physical demand has held up. The Sovereign Gold Bond scheme, which was the government’s answer to that demand, currently has no new tranches scheduled for FY 2026-27, and existing bonds are only running out their remaining term.
Tokenized gold arrives into that vacuum, but through a tax and custody structure that is materially different from what SGB investors were used to.
Several regulatory questions remain open around this category. The treatment under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) of Indian residents holding tokens issued by a foreign entity through a domestic exchange has not been specifically clarified in publicly available guidance. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) does not currently regulate tokenized commodities simply because they reference an underlying commodity; the applicable treatment can depend on the legal structure and whether the instrument falls within the securities framework.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has historically taken a cautious position on private crypto assets, and publicly available RBI guidance does not appear to establish a separate regulatory framework specifically for tokens that reference physical gold.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) treatment can also depend on the underlying transaction and the legal characterization of the token and service involved. Public guidance does not establish a single, tokenized-gold-specific GST treatment that can be applied universally.
These unresolved questions mean the economics and compliance obligations associated with holding XAUT through an Indian exchange could depend on how Indian authorities classify and regulate the product. Investors should not assume that tokenized gold receives the same tax or regulatory treatment as physical gold, gold ETFs or Sovereign Gold Bonds.
Where this leaves the retail investor
For Indian users, the trade-off is now visible in daily terms. Buying XAUT on CoinDCX offers 24/7 tradability, fractional exposure at ₹100 and access to a token that is recognised across global venues.
The offsetting costs are a 30% tax rate on income from the transfer of VDAs, a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) requirement on qualifying VDA transfers subject to the applicable thresholds and conditions, restrictions on setting off or carrying forward losses from VDA transfers, and a redemption route that only opens up at holdings well beyond typical retail scale.
The listing does not, by itself, settle how tokenized gold should be classified for Indian tax and regulatory purposes. If XAUT is treated as a Virtual Digital Asset under the applicable tax framework, its transfer would generally fall under the VDA tax regime. However, there is no specific public tax carve-out identified here for tokenized gold based on the fact that the token represents an interest linked to physical gold.
Until Indian authorities provide specific guidance or legislation addressing tokenized real-world assets, investors should not assume that the tax treatment of XAUT will mirror that of physical gold, gold ETFs or Sovereign Gold Bonds. The applicable treatment can depend on how the token and transaction are classified under Indian law.
Also Read: India’s First Tokenized Bond Set for September as REC Plans Sub-$57M Sale
