Under the offering, customers can take their old or idle gold jewellery or coins to a BlueStone store for assessment. Once the gold is assayed, it is converted into digital gold through SafeGold’s platform and can be leased to earn a yield of around 4% a year, according to the companies. The returns are paid in gold grams instead of cash.
The companies said receiving returns in gold grams allows customers to increase their gold holdings over time instead of earning rupee-denominated returns.
The partnership extends SafeGold’s digital gold platform, which currently enables users to buy, sell and store digital gold, to include physical gold already owned by customers.
According to SafeGold and BlueStone, the initiative is also aimed at mobilising idle household gold for use by the jewellery industry. They said jewellers can source domestically mobilised gold instead of relying on fresh imports, which could help reduce dependence on imported gold.
However, the companies did not disclose any estimates on the amount of gold they expect to mobilise or its potential impact on imports.
“India is sitting on one of the largest reserves of idle household gold in the world, yet most of it earns nothing for its owners,” said Gaurav Mathur, Founder and CEO of SafeGold.
He said the partnership with BlueStone aims to enable customers to convert jewellery kept in lockers into digital gold that can generate returns in the form of additional gold grams.Gaurav Kushwaha, Founder and CEO of BlueStone, said the company’s retail network will facilitate the collection of old gold while offering customers a way to participate in the jewellery supply chain through the new model.
The companies estimate that Indian households hold around 30,000 tonnes of gold, much of which remains idle in lockers and homes.
The companies did not disclose details such as the tenure of the leasing arrangement, eligibility criteria, charges, or the number of BlueStone stores where the service will initially be be available.
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