India's finance ministry is moving to bring digital gold under the joint oversight of the RBI and SEBI, with a proposal that every unit sold to a retail investor be backed by verified physical metal. The concern is not that platforms are lying about their vaults — it is that nobody independently verifies them. The sector holds an estimated $3 billion.
Here is what the filings say that the headlines do not: the unregulated pool of retail gold-linked prepayments is not mainly in fintech apps. It sits on listed jewellers' balance sheets, it is far larger per company, and it is disclosed in language most investors never read.
One jeweller holds more customer gold money than its entire net worth
Start with Thangamayil Jewellery, a Madurai-based chain. Note 21 of its FY26 annual report shows "Advances from customers" of ₹1,42,117 lakhs — ₹1,421 crore — as at 31 March 2026, against ₹61,077 lakhs (₹611 crore) a year earlier. That is a 2.3x jump in twelve months. The note specifies that ₹1,41,887.34 lakhs (₹1,419 crore) of it was "received towards sale of jewellery products under various sale initiatives / retail customer schemes," and that these advances "are redeemable by way of sale alone within 11 Months from the reporting date."
Put that next to the Key Financial Highlights in the same report: share capital of ₹3,108 lakhs plus other equity of ₹1,38,492 lakhs gives a net worth of roughly ₹1,416 crore. Thangamayil's customer scheme advances now slightly exceed its entire shareholders' equity and fund about 37% of its ₹3,820 crore balance sheet. FY26 revenue including other income was ₹8,514 crore, so customers have prepaid roughly two months of sales.
The company runs a scheme literally called "Digi Gold"
The same annual report discloses, in its accounting policies, that "The Company is operating gold savings in the name of 'Digi Gold' scheme wherein the customers can pay any amount for 330 days at any time and convert the payment made to gold weight. An additional benefit of gold weight is provided to the customers on a time proportionate basis not exceeding 5%."
Thangamayil runs two structurally different schemes:
- The easy payment scheme: the company "offers in return gold ornaments at the rate prevailing on the date of redemption... without any charges towards making and wastage cost." The customer bears the gold price risk; the jeweller gives up making and wastage margin.
- "Digi Gold," where payments are converted to gold weight when paid, plus up to 5% bonus weight. Here the jeweller carries the gold price risk, because the metal obligation is locked in weight terms.
A final irony: Thangamayil separately seeks approval to accept public deposits of up to ₹496 crore for FY27 under Sections 73 and 76 of the Companies Act. Those deposits carry a deposit repayment reserve, deposit insurance, mandatory circulars and statutory returns. The ₹1,421 crore of gold-scheme advances — nearly three times larger — carry none of it.
Senco already looks like what the rules would require
Senco Gold operates a genuine digital gold product, and its disclosures read like a compliance template. Its presentations state that My Digi Gold sources 24K gold of 995 purity and that "your purchased gold is safely kept with a reputed third party custodian that offers 100% insurance protection." Registrations reached 1,53,902+ as of June 2026, up from 1,37,000+ in December 2025.
It also discloses its scheme ladder precisely: Swarna Labh (6 months, minimum ₹1,000, benefit 30% of one instalment), Swarna Yojana (11 months, 75%) and Swarna Vriddhi (18 months, 150%). Note that 18-month tenure — longer than the sub-twelve-month structure Thangamayil uses. Senco is candid about why these exist: they provide "steady cash inflows, supporting working capital and business visibility." That is a company telling you its customers are a funding source.
Titan is quietly the plumbing
Titan reports DigiGold separately from everything else. Its presentations carry the standing note that "Total Income excludes bullion and DigiGold sales," and a FY25 correction slide disclosed that Q2 FY25 income "inadvertently included DigiGold sales of ₹104 crores" — real volume that never appears in headline revenue.
More interesting is CaratLane's June 2026 technology presentation, which lists among its homegrown applications "DigiGold Services for CaratLane & Other distributors." Titan's subsidiary is not just selling digital gold — it runs the infrastructure for third-party distributors. Any regime governing digital gold distribution touches Titan at the platform layer, not just the retail layer.
Kalyan Jewellers shows the distribution scale: its Q2 FY26 presentation reports 1,092 "My Kalyan" grassroots centres and 4,160 employees driving roughly 13% of India revenue and about 28% of purchase advance scheme enrolment in India. P N Gadgil Jewellers discloses a Future Purchase Plan: 10 months, minimum ₹1,000 monthly, redeemable in the 12th month.
What retail investors should do
Be clear on what is actually proposed: physical backing and RBI–SEBI oversight for digital gold platforms. Nothing announced so far extends to jeweller purchase schemes, and you should not assume it will. But the principle behind it — verified backing, an audit trail, a named regulator — is exactly what those schemes lack, and they hold the larger money.
If you hold one of these stocks, read the "advances from customers" note and the customer-scheme accounting policy in the annual report, not the investor presentation. Ask three things: how large are the advances against net worth, what is the redemption tenure, and is the obligation fixed in rupees or in gold weight? Thangamayil answers all three in writing — a mark of disclosure quality, not a red flag. The ones to worry about publish scheme marketing but no balance-sheet note. And if you are a customer rather than a shareholder: your money is an unsecured advance to a retailer, redeemable only in jewellery, with no deposit insurance behind it.
Data sourced from company filings on NSE via Xaro.