How PAX Gold is backed by physical gold

Is it really backed by gold?

Yes. PAX Gold is backed by allocated physical gold, not by futures, not by a gold fund and not by a promise to buy gold later. Each PAXG represents one fine troy ounce of a specific London Good Delivery bar, and those bars sit in London vaults approved by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). The issuer, Paxos Trust Company, N.A., publishes a monthly report from KPMG LLP that compares tokens outstanding with gold held.

The most recent figures we could confirm are from the 30 June 2026 attestation: 452,355 PAXG outstanding and 452,355 fine troy ounces of gold held, with no surplus and no deficit. Paxos has since posted reports through August 2026, but we have not reviewed the August figures, so check the latest report yourself. This page explains where the gold is, what kind of gold it is, what the reports do and do not prove, and what the terms say if something goes wrong at Paxos. For the basics of the token itself, start with what PAX Gold is.

Where the gold is stored

Paxos describes the storage simply as “LBMA vaults in London”. Its terms are a little more specific and refer to “LBMA-approved security carrier vaults”, meaning the professional vault operators that move and store bullion for the London market. London is the center of the global wholesale gold trade, so this is where the bars are easiest to verify, insure and sell.

Paxos’s main product pages do not name the vault companies. The custodians appear in the attestation data instead. An independent risk assessment published on the Aave governance forum in August 2026, citing those attestations, names Brink’s Global Services and ICBC Standard Bank as the custodians. It also reports that HSBC was removed from the custody set from 30 January 2026. The Etherscan token description mentions Brink’s vaults as well.

Insurance is handled at the vault level. A Paxos support article says its vault provider maintains insurance against loss of the gold, covering storage and transit. The insurer is not named, and the policy terms are not public.

London Good Delivery bars

London Good Delivery is the LBMA’s standard for the large bars traded between banks, refiners and central banks. A Good Delivery gold bar weighs roughly 350 to 430 troy ounces and is identifiable by a unique serial number. The LBMA keeps the Good Delivery List of accredited refiners whose bars meet the standard, and the bars are held by LBMA-approved vaults and carriers.

This matters because it makes the gold easy to value and sell. A Good Delivery bar in a London vault is the most liquid form of gold in the world; nobody needs to assay it again before buying. It also explains the large minimum for physical redemption: you cannot take home a slice of a bar, so taking metal out of PAXG means taking a whole bar, which starts at 430 PAXG. The details are on our redemption and fees page.

Why one token is a slice of a bar

A single Good Delivery bar holds hundreds of ounces. Your PAXG is matched to part of a numbered bar, which is why the Gold Allocation Look-up can show you a serial number even if you hold only 0.1 PAXG.

Allocated vs unallocated gold

In the bullion world the difference between allocated and unallocated gold is the most important distinction there is. The PAX Gold terms define allocated gold as a specific bar held in an LBMA-approved security carrier vault, identifiable by a unique serial number. Unallocated gold is defined as a gold deposit held by an LBMA-approved institution “which is a liability of such institution”. In plain words, unallocated gold is an IOU from a bank; allocated gold is a particular bar set aside for you.

The reserve behind PAXG is the allocated kind. The terms say the bars are “held by Paxos Trust on a segregated basis for the benefit of PAXG holders”, and that PAXG tokens are “akin to a warehouse receipt” for your beneficial ownership. Unallocated gold only enters the picture if you choose it at redemption: institutional customers can convert PAXG into unallocated Loco London gold, and the terms warn that such balances carry the risk of the clearing bank that issues them.

This is a real difference from many gold funds and savings apps. Our PAXG vs gold comparison shows how PAXG stacks up against gold ETFs such as GLD, where holders own trust shares rather than a link to numbered bars.

Monthly KPMG attestations

Paxos publishes an attestation report every month on its PAXG transparency page. Reports posted on or after 28 February 2025 are issued by KPMG LLP; earlier reports came from WithumSmith+Brown, PC. As of 12 October 2026 the newest report listed is for August 2026. (One Paxos support article still names Withum as the firm; the transparency page is the current, authoritative source.)

It helps to know what an attestation is. An accounting firm examines a specific claim made by management, here that the gold held matches the PAXG outstanding at a given date, and gives an opinion on that claim. It is narrower than a full financial audit, which looks at a whole company’s accounts, controls and solvency over a year. An attestation tells you the reserve matched the tokens on the report date. It does not tell you that Paxos as a company is financially sound, and it does not cover what happens between report dates.

Some press articles mention an annual physical bar count by Bureau Veritas. We could not confirm that against a Paxos source, so treat it as unverified. For how the attestation regime compares with the quarterly reports behind Tether Gold, see PAXG vs XAUT.

Finding your bar with the Gold Allocation Look-up

Paxos offers a tool on its PAX Gold page called the Gold Allocation Look-up. You paste in a wallet address and it shows the serial number, weight and vault of the bar or bars allocated to that address. It is one of the more concrete transparency features in the gold-token market.

There is a catch. The look-up works only for self-custodied Ethereum and Solana addresses. If your PAXG sits on an exchange, the tokens belong to the exchange’s wallet, not to an address you control, so there is nothing personal to look up. To use the tool:

• Withdraw your PAXG from the exchange to a wallet you control, such as one from our PAXG wallet list or a Ledger device.
• Check you are on the right network and contract; our networks page lists the Ethereum contract and how to verify Solana PAXG.
• Paste your public address (never a seed phrase) into the look-up on paxos.com.
• Note the serial number and vault for your records, and check again after large transfers.

What happens if Paxos fails?

This is the question that matters most, so we will be precise. The PAX Gold terms (last modified 12 December 2025) say the gold is held on a segregated basis for the benefit of PAXG holders, and that tokens represent beneficial ownership, like a warehouse receipt. That wording is designed to keep the gold separate from Paxos’s own assets. However, the terms we read do not describe what happens in an insolvency, and they do not use the phrase “bankruptcy-remote”. No court has tested how PAXG gold would be treated if Paxos failed.

Two other parts of the terms are worth knowing. Paxos has the right to freeze and upgrade PAXG tokens, and frozen assets “may become wholly and permanently unrecoverable”. And redemption requires a verified Paxos account, so a holder who is not a customer would need to become one, or sell on the market, to turn tokens back into value. We cover these risks, plus Paxos’s regulatory history and admin keys, on is PAX Gold safe.

How to check it yourself

You do not have to take anyone’s word for the backing, including ours. Once a quarter, open the latest report on the Paxos transparency page and confirm that tokens and ounces match. Compare the token count with the on-chain supply shown on Etherscan; on 12 October 2026 the Ethereum contract showed about 436,421 PAXG, below the June figure because holders have been redeeming since supply peaked in April 2026.

Then use the look-up from your own wallet and read the LBMA’s pages on Good Delivery if you want to understand the bar standard. Finally, watch the market price: PAXG has historically traded very close to spot gold, and our live PAXG price page shows the current premium or discount. A persistent, unexplained gap would be the first sign that something needs a closer look.