> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.theo.xyz/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.theo.xyz/products/thgold-and-thslvr.md). # thGOLD & thSLVR Yield-bearing gold and silver, powered by institutional financing ## How they work One thGOLD is one troy ounce of physical gold. One thSLVR is one troy ounce of physical silver. Neither token rebases, drifts, or accrues, so an ounce today is an ounce in ten years. Yield comes from staking, covered below. The two products are built identically and run on the same contracts. Everything on this page and its subpages applies to both unless it says otherwise. The metal backing each token sits in one of three states at any moment. | State | What it means | How quickly it comes back | | ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | | **Allocated** | Held unlent in Theo's own allocated vault account | Immediate | | **Short-duration lease** | Lent to institutional counterparties on short tenors that roll continuously | Days | | **Long-duration lease** | Lent on longer tenors, at a higher rate | Term | Unstaked metal is held allocated or in short revolving leases, so it stays recallable. When you stake thGOLD into sthGOLD, or thSLVR into sthSLVR, you signal to Theo's credit desk that those ounces are committed, and the desk can write longer-dated leases against them. Longer tenors pay more, and that income is what the staked vaults distribute. {% hint style="info" %} Neither thGOLD nor thSLVR accrues yield on its own. Stake into sthGOLD or sthSLVR to earn. Each vault's share price is denominated in ounces of its metal, so it rises as lease income arrives. {% endhint %} ### Buy → Stake → Earn 1. **Buy or mint** thGOLD or thSLVR. See [Mint & redeem](/products/thgold-and-thslvr/mint-and-redeem.md). 2. **Stake** to receive sthGOLD or sthSLVR. See [Staking](/products/thgold-and-thslvr/staking.md). 3. **Earn** lease income, paid in the same metal and delivered as a rising ounces-per-share. ## Why leased metal Gold and silver are two of the deepest commodity markets in the world, but held on their own they earn nothing. Storage and insurance make them mildly negative-carry, which is the trade every bullion holder accepts in exchange for an asset with no issuer and no credit risk. There is, however, a long-established market for borrowing the metal itself. Refiners, fabricators and bullion banks need physical gold and silver in inventory before they are paid for the finished product, and borrowing metal is cheaper than borrowing the cash to buy it. Silver adds a further set of borrowers: industrial users in photovoltaics, electronics and medical manufacturing, whose supply chains hold physical inventory. All of them pay a lease rate for it, in a market that long predates crypto and has nothing to do with it. thGOLD and thSLVR give you the ounce and route that lease income to you if you want it: * **Real-economy yield** — paid by industrial and institutional borrowers, not by token emissions or funding rates * **Denominated in metal** — income arrives as gold or silver, so returns compound in ounces rather than dollars * **Unhedged** — both tokens are delta-one to their metal. For gold, [thUSD](/products/thusd.md) is the hedged version of the same strategy. There is no hedged silver product {% hint style="warning" %} Lending applies to the backing of all thGOLD and all thSLVR, not only to the portion that is staked. Staking changes the tenor of the leases written against your ounces and entitles you to the income, but it does not determine whether your metal is lent. See [Risks](/products/thgold-and-thslvr/risks.md). {% endhint %} ## Contracts Both products live on **Ethereum**, across four token contracts. | Contract | Purpose | | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **thGOLD**, **thSLVR** | The metal tokens. ERC-20 with permit and burn, 6 decimals, one authorized minter each. No pause, blacklist, transfer fee or transfer hook | | **sthGOLD**, **sthSLVR** | The staked, income-accruing versions. ERC-4626 vaults over the corresponding metal token, with a 5-day redemption lockup | | **Operator multisig** | 4-of-6 Safe holding the `minter` role on both metal tokens | All four are UUPS proxies owned by the same Timelock that governs the thUSD stack, so upgrades and parameter changes pass through the same delay. thGOLD and thSLVR run identical `MetalToken` source at separate implementation addresses. sthGOLD and sthSLVR share a single `StakedMetal` implementation, a fork of sthUSD. Addresses are on [Addresses](/developers/deployed-addresses.md); the roles that can change state are on [Roles & access control](/security-and-transparency/roles-and-access-control.md). {% hint style="warning" %} All four contracts use **6 decimals**, not 18. One ounce is `1000000`. Integrators should read `decimals()` rather than assuming. {% endhint %} ### Metal token vs staked vault | | thGOLD, thSLVR | sthGOLD, sthSLVR | | ------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it is** | One troy ounce of metal, fixed | The staked version, accruing lease income | | **Standard** | ERC-20, 6 decimals | ERC-4626 over the metal token, 6 decimals | | **Price behaviour** | Always 1 oz | Ounces per share rises over time | | **Use cases** | Holding, transfers, collateral | Earning | | **Exit** | Transfer or redeem | Initiate redemption, wait 5 days, claim the metal token |