SPDR Gold Shares

GLD changed how ordinary investors buy gold. Launched in 2004 as the first US exchange-traded fund backed by a physical commodity, it holds real gold bars in a London vault and lets anyone own a claim on that bullion by buying a share, each designed to represent a fraction of an ounce, without the hassle of storing or insuring the metal themselves. That made gold as easy to trade as a stock and turned GLD into one of the largest funds in the world and the dominant way to get gold exposure in a brokerage account. Managed by State Street and tied to the World Gold Council, it simply tracks the metal's price, minus a small fee. Investors use it to hedge against inflation, currency weakness and market turmoil, the same reasons anyone buys gold, so its flows are watched as a barometer of fear and of demand for a safe haven. When gold moves, GLD moves with it.

On MyRWA, GLD trades tokenized across 15 on-chain venues - see the listings below.