The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has been admitted into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Virtual Asset Sandbox as a real-world asset custodian for gold, as the regulator moves to test digital asset products under a controlled regulatory framework.
GoldBod is among 20 entities admitted into the SEC’s Virtual Asset Sandbox to pilot various virtual asset services, including asset tokenisation, virtual asset brokerage, exchanges and trading platforms.
SEC, in a public notice dated August 19, 2026, said the sandbox will allow participants to pilot their approved activities under regulatory supervision while the Commission collects data to support the development of guidelines and regulations for the licensing and registration of virtual asset service providers.
The initiative is being implemented under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), which provides the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities in Ghana.
Other entities admitted into the sandbox include AfricaCoin Ghana Limited, Vaulta Digital Assets Ltd, GFX Brokers Limited, One Africa Securities Ltd, Wewire Ghana Limited and Mansu Technologies Ltd.
AfricaCoin Ghana will pilot gold asset tokenisation, while Vaulta Digital Assets will test securities tokenisation. GFX Brokers will focus on T-Bill tokenisation, One Africa Securities on bond tokenisation and Wewire Ghana on trade-finance tokenisation. Mansu Technologies will pilot virtual asset brokerage.
Sage Advance Global Services Ltd and Mojo Pay Ghana Limited will also test virtual asset brokerage, while Yellow Card Ghana Limited, Hyro Exchange Ltd, WhiteBIT Ghana Ltd, Koinkoin Ghana Ltd and the Ghana Commodities Exchange will operate in the virtual asset exchange space.
XChain Technologies Ltd, HanyPay Ghana Ltd, The Blue Penguin Company Limited, HSB Global Fintech Ltd, Mamoru Digital Ghana Ltd and BSystems Ltd have been admitted to pilot virtual asset trading platforms.
What it means
GoldBod’s admission places the state-backed gold institution within Ghana’s emerging regulated digital asset ecosystem, specifically in the custody of gold-backed real-world assets.
Real-world asset tokenisation involves representing ownership or rights to physical or traditional financial assets, such as gold, securities, bonds or Treasury bills, through digital tokens.
However, participation in the sandbox does not constitute a full licence to operate as a virtual asset service provider. The entities are permitted to test only their approved activities within the regulatory parameters set by the SEC.
Why it matters
The inclusion of GoldBod could provide a regulatory pathway for exploring how Ghana’s gold assets can be linked to digital financial products while placing custody arrangements under regulatory oversight.
For the wider financial sector, the sandbox will allow the SEC to assess the technology, governance, consumer-protection and risk-management systems behind virtual asset businesses before determining the requirements for full-scale operations.
The data gathered from the 20 participants will also inform the SEC’s final guidelines on licensing and registration, potentially shaping how digital assets, tokenised securities and gold-backed products develop in Ghana.
The initiative signals a move toward bringing Ghana’s growing virtual asset market under a more structured regulatory regime, with investor protection and market integrity at the centre of the process.
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