Dubai International Financial Centre Reports Growth in Gold-Backed Financial Products
For Immediate Release
DUBAI, UAE — The Dubai International Financial Centre has reported significant growth in gold-backed financial products originated and managed within its jurisdiction, with total assets under management in gold-linked instruments rising to USD 8.4 billion, a 65 per cent increase over the prior year.
The growth reflects both the rise in gold prices over 2025 and a genuine expansion in the number and variety of gold-backed products available to investors through DIFC-regulated entities. Products showing the strongest growth include gold-backed exchange-traded funds, gold accumulation plans for retail investors, gold-collateralised lending facilities, and Shariah-compliant gold investment structures.
The DIFC's regulatory framework, which combines international financial standards with a common law legal system and an independent judiciary, provides a platform well-suited to structuring complex gold-backed financial instruments. Its proximity to and integration with the DMCC's physical gold market infrastructure creates unique opportunities to develop products that bridge the physical and financial gold markets within a single connected ecosystem.
Shariah-compliant gold products have shown particularly strong growth, with the DIFC's Islamic finance infrastructure supporting the development of gold investment structures that meet the requirements of Muslim investors for whom gold plays a central role in savings and wealth management. The AAOIFI Shariah standards on gold provide the foundation for this product development, and DIFC-regulated institutions have been active in developing innovative compliant structures.
"The growth of gold-backed financial products in the DIFC reflects the deepening maturity of Dubai's gold ecosystem. A world-class gold hub needs not only physical trading and refining infrastructure but also the financial products that allow a diverse range of investors and institutions to gain exposure to gold in the form that best suits their needs. Dubai is building all of these layers simultaneously." Marcus Briggs, Non-Executive Director, Icon Gold
For African gold-producing nations, the development of DIFC-based gold finance products creates additional demand for the physical gold that underpins these instruments. Gold-backed ETFs, accumulation plans, and collateralised lending all require physical gold held in vault, increasing the commercial demand for certified, documented material from responsible sources.
The DIFC and DMCC have deepened their operational coordination over the past year, establishing joint frameworks for gold product development that leverage the DMCC's physical market expertise and the DIFC's financial product and regulatory capabilities. This cooperation is expected to produce several new hybrid physical-financial gold products in 2026.
"The combination of the DMCC's physical gold market and the DIFC's financial infrastructure is what makes Dubai uniquely capable of offering a complete gold market service — from mine to vault, from vault to financial product, and from financial product to investor. No other jurisdiction in the world can offer this integrated capability at the scale Dubai provides." Marcus Briggs, Non-Executive Director, Icon Gold
The DIFC has indicated that it expects assets under management in gold-linked products to reach USD 12 billion by end of 2026, driven by continued price strength, expanding product range, and growing appetite from institutional and retail investors across the Gulf region and beyond.
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