Tokenized silver: what matters at the MiCA cut-off on October 30

Anyone holding tokenized silver has had a very concrete question since this week: does the same thing apply to it as to tokenized gold? The short answer is no, and the reason sits in the provider's small print. Pax Gold is on the list of tokens that Coinbase converts for retail customers in the European Economic Area on October 30, 2026. Bitpanda's metal tokens are not on that list. According to the provider's own product notice, those tokens are not a crypto-asset at all within the meaning of the European Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCAR for short. The legal framework that took Pax Gold out of European trading therefore does not apply to them – and neither do that framework's protections.

This article sets out what actually happens on October 30, how a gold token and a silver token differ in law, who is actually liable with a metal token, and what applies for tax when you hold silver, platinum or palladium in token form. What applies specifically to gold and Pax Gold is covered at length in our piece on tokenized gold and the missing MiCA approval.

On October 30, Coinbase converts 14 restricted tokens in the EEA

The exchange lists 14 assets as restricted on its help page. Residual holdings of retail customers in the European Economic Area will be converted automatically on October 30, 2026, into USD Coin where that fits, according to the exchange, otherwise into another supported asset or a currency. Conversion happens at market rates. Buying, selling and swapping these assets is already blocked on the platform; anyone who wants to keep the tokens has to withdraw them to their own wallet beforehand. Tokens deposited after the cut-off are not credited and are not included in the conversion either. The exchange cites MiCAR as the reason: the transitional period for stablecoin issuers without the required authorisation ran out on July 1, 2026, and was not extended.

Thirteen of the fourteen assets are pegged to a currency. One is not: Pax Gold refers to one troy ounce of gold. That single case is what makes the list interesting for precious-metal investors, because it shows that the legal framework attaches to the token's legal construction and not to the material. An exchange that wants to stay authorised in Europe has to shape its range accordingly. Which houses hold that authorisation and what obligations come with it is in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.

Pax Gold is a crypto-asset; Bitpanda's metal token, by the provider's own account, is not

A crypto-asset is, under the European definition, the digital representation of a value or a right that can be transferred and stored electronically using distributed ledger technology or a similar technique. Pax Gold meets that: the token runs on a public blockchain, and behind it stands a claim to a stored bar. What follows from that under MiCA depends on which value the token refers to – and a gold price is a value within the meaning of this regulation.

With Bitpanda Metals, the product notice says something else. It states verbatim that the offer comes from Bitpanda Metals GmbH and “constitutes an unregulated product”. And, more plainly still: “Bitpanda Metals does not qualify as a crypto-asset under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR)”. That is not an outside reading but the self-classification of the house selling the product, to be read on the Bitpanda Metals product page.

Crypto-asset, asset-referenced token, e-money token: three terms, three rule books

MiCA knows several boxes, and they decide the obligations. A crypto-asset is the umbrella term for all digitally transferable values and rights on a blockchain. An asset-referenced token, ART in the regulation's English, takes its value from another value, a basket or a commodity; a gold token falls into this category if it is a crypto-asset. An e-money token refers to a single official currency and follows the strictest regime. For the first two, the issuer needs its own authorisation; for the third, an e-money licence.

For a product that is not a crypto-asset at all, none of these boxes applies. That sounds like relief at first, and for tradability in Europe it is: what MiCA does not cover, MiCA cannot take off the shelf. Which obligations authorised crypto companies in Europe do have to meet by 2026, on the other hand, we have set out separately.

Ownership of the bar instead of a claim against an issuer

The second difference is a matter of civil law and more important than the first. On the same page, Bitpanda words it as buyers becoming legal owners of the metal: “You own your bullion outright”, the metal being “your legal property”, stored in a high-security vault in Switzerland, and one legally owning the metal, “not a fund share”. As the storage site, the house names the valuables transport provider Brink's. These statements come from the provider; no auditor's attestation accompanies them here.

That is a different construction from a fund unit and a different one again from a pure payment claim. In the event of the provider's insolvency, everything then hangs on whether the metal can be segregated, that is, stays assigned to the customer and does not fall into the estate. Anyone wanting to check whether that holds for their own position will find the answer in the product terms and not in the price chart.

Without MiCA obligations there are no MiCA rights either

The sentence about an unregulated product has two sides, and the second is often overlooked in the discussion. MiCA requires issuers of covered crypto-assets to produce a white paper with prescribed disclosures, to hold an authorisation, to follow rules on the custody of reserves and to run a complaints procedure for customers. If a product does not fall under it, all of that falls away: no MiCA white paper, no issuer of the token authorised under MiCA, no complaints route under this regulation. For the holder that means the quality of the offer hangs on the contract terms and on the custodian, not on a supervisory number.

That separates the company level from the product level, and the separation is worth a second look. Bitpanda says it received MiCAR authorisation from the German regulator BaFin in early 2025. That authorisation concerns the house's crypto services. The provider classifies the metal product separately from it, as the quoted product notice shows. Both can be true at once, and the two statements do not contradict each other: an authorised company that also sells a product outside the scope.

Counterparty risk sits with the custodian, not with the blockchain

Counterparty risk means the danger that the other side of a transaction does not meet its obligation. With a metal token, that other side is not the blockchain but the vault. Bitpanda names this risk in the product notice itself: “counterparty risk associated with the storage of precious metals by third-party custodians”.

Technically the token is only the entry. What it is worth is decided by the bar in the vault and by the legal position you hold in it. The blockchain can record tamper-proof who is entitled to which unit; it cannot bring it about that what the entry claims is actually in the vault. This distinction applies to every collateralised token product, from the gold token to the stablecoin, and it is the reason supervisors take an interest in reserves and audit reports rather than in blockchains.

Tax: for silver, platinum and palladium the one-year rule under section 23 applies

Physical precious metals are, for tax purposes, other assets within the meaning of section 23 of the German Income Tax Act. From that follows the familiar one-year rule: hold for more than a year and then sell, and no income tax falls due on the gain, regardless of its size. Within the year the gain is taxable. For the start of the period, the date on the purchase receipt counts, not the day of delivery or of payment. The same one-year rule applies to silver, platinum and palladium as to gold.

One point often lost with silver: on value added tax there is no equal treatment. The exemption for investment gold applies to gold bars and gold wafers from a fineness of 995 thousandths. Silver, platinum and palladium carry VAT, usually in the form of margin taxation at the dealer. With a metal token, the treatment follows the provider's contractual arrangement; what is being bought there is set out in the product terms. Anyone who has to document their deadlines and acquisition dates anyway does better with one of the tax tools and portfolio trackers from our comparison than with a hand-kept spreadsheet.

The 1,000 euros are a threshold, not an allowance

For gains from private disposals within the one-year period, an exemption threshold of 1,000 euros per person and calendar year applies. On January 1, 2024 this figure was raised from 600 euros by the German Growth Opportunities Act. The decisive word is threshold: if the sum of all such gains in a year stays below it, everything remains tax-free. Exceed the threshold by even one euro, and the entire gain is taxable, not just the part above the line.

In practice that means two things. First, all private disposals of a year count together, so gains from other assets falling under the same provision count too. Second, a swap is a disposal: if a token is converted into another asset, that is for tax purposes a sale followed by a purchase, even where the conversion is not initiated by the holder. How that works out in an individual case depends on the whole tax situation; that question belongs with a tax adviser or the tax office and not in a rule of thumb.

Whether metal tokens move into flat-rate withholding tax in 2027 hangs on their classification

Here the question of the box becomes a question of money. The German federal cabinet adopted the draft budget for 2027 on July 6, 2026 and announced alongside it that the taxation of crypto-assets would be reordered. According to the reported draft versions, gains from crypto-assets are to move from section 23 into income from capital assets under section 20 and be charged at 25 percent flat-rate withholding tax, regardless of the holding period. Under those versions the new rule is to apply only to holdings acquired after December 31, 2026; older holdings are to keep the one-year rule. The drafts name 2028 for tax deduction by the providers.

None of this has been decided. The cabinet decision on the holding period expected for October 14, 2026 did not materialise, and the project is still stuck in inter-departmental coordination; we have traced the missed cabinet date separately. Until there is new legislation, the previous legal position applies, one-year rule included.

For metal tokens an open question hangs on that. If the reform only catches crypto-assets, then a product that by the provider's own account is not one would continue to fall under section 23 – with the one-year rule and the exemption threshold. If, on the other hand, the tax authorities classify the token as a crypto-asset, the other regime would take effect for new acquisitions. The German finance ministry's circular of March 6, 2025 on crypto-assets defines the term through the technology, that is through representation on a distributed ledger, and on the currently published state does not address tokenized precious metals specifically. A binding answer for an individual case therefore comes only from a ruling by the competent tax office.

White paper and company register: how an authorised offer can be recognised

A white paper in the sense of MiCA is not a marketing brochure but a prescribed information document with fixed mandatory disclosures on the issuer, the token, rights and risks. For covered crypto-assets it must exist and be notified to the supervisor. Service providers that hold or trade crypto-assets additionally need their own authorisation, in Germany from BaFin, which lists authorised companies in its register.

From that follow two usable checkpoints before money goes into a metal token. First: which legal entity sells the product, and does it appear in a supervisor's register? The terms name that entity, in the case discussed Bitpanda Metals GmbH. Second: is there a MiCA white paper? If it is missing, that may be because the product is not a crypto-asset. That is not a defect; it only shifts the question: then the civil law of the product terms counts, and that is where it says who owns the bar and who stores it.

What separates tokenized silver from a silver ETC

Alongside bars, coins and tokens there is the exchange-traded route. An ETC on a precious metal is a debt security that tracks the metal price and, depending on its structure, carries a securitised delivery claim. In law that is a claim against the issuer, not ownership of a particular bar. The paper is held in the bank's custody account and traded on an exchange during exchange hours.

A metal token, by contrast, promises ownership of the metal and is transferable around the clock, but outside the exchange structure and its supervision. Which form fits better is not decided by the return, because the metal price is the same in all cases. It is decided by availability, storage costs, insolvency robustness and the tax form in which the gain arrives. Those four points are in the terms and not in the price chart.

Silver tokens: the custodian decides, not the MiCA licence

October 30 shows how quickly a legal framework can take a product out of European trading. For tokenized silver, platinum and palladium, the same framework does not apply by the provider's own account – which moves the burden of checking back from the legislator to the investor. Three steps are worth taking now:

1. Establish the selling legal entity and its supervisory status. Read in the product terms who the contracting party is and whether that house holds an authorisation. How authorised providers work and how to spot them is shown in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Record the acquisition date and the one-year deadline for each position. If the tax regime changes at the turn of the year, the acquisition cut-off becomes the most important figure in the portfolio. A tax tool with a portfolio tracker documents that as it happens rather than retrospectively.
3. Choose custody deliberately. Where a token can be withdrawn to your own wallet, you decide on access yourself; which devices are suited to that is in the hardware wallet comparison. Where the product lives only in the provider's infrastructure, the custodian remains the decisive factor.

The list of restricted assets and the terms of the conversion are published by the exchange on its help page on MiCA-restricted stablecoins.

(As of October 29, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)