Onegold, an online bullion marketplace focused on digitally represented precious metals, has announced that customers can now purchase its digital gold and silver products using bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH). The move adds cryptocurrency payment support to a platform built around fully allocated physical bullion, with the underlying metals stored at the Royal Canadian Mint and redeemable through Apmex.
The company positions its offering as a bridge between traditional precious metals ownership and modern digital infrastructure. Rather than selling paper exposure to gold or silver, Onegold says its products are backed by physical metal on a one-to-one basis. Customers can hold those interests digitally and redeem them when needed, making the platform part e-commerce marketplace, part digitally enabled bullion custody model.
Crypto Payments Added Through Bitpay Partnership
The addition of BTC and BCH payments comes through a partnership with Bitpay, a long-established cryptocurrency payment processor with an existing relationship with Apmex. Because Apmex had already worked with Bitpay for years, integrating crypto payments into the Onegold platform appears to have been a natural next step as the new bullion product expanded its payment options.
Sonny Singh, Bitpay’s chief commercial officer, said the two companies had collaborated for years to make it easier for Apmex to accept cryptocurrency. When Onegold was launched, Bitpay was prepared to help the platform begin accepting both bitcoin and bitcoin cash. His comments framed the rollout as an extension of a broader effort to make crypto usable in practical, transaction-heavy online commerce settings.
Singh also argued that cryptocurrency is particularly well suited to industries such as e-commerce and precious metals, where merchants must deal with high levels of chargeback risk, fraud, and identity theft when relying on traditional card rails. In that context, crypto is presented not just as an alternative payment option, but as a tool for improving transaction certainty.
Why Bullion Platforms See Value in Crypto Transactions
Onegold chief executive officer Ken Lewis said one of the main reasons for adding BTC and BCH was the problem of credit card chargebacks. For precious metals sellers, that issue has long been significant: bullion products are high-value, easily transferable, and attractive targets for fraudulent purchases. Once a card transaction is reversed, merchants may be left with both product loss and payment loss.
By contrast, cryptocurrency payments function more like cash in that they are initiated directly by the buyer and settled through a push-based transaction model. That structure, Lewis noted, makes common forms of payment fraud much harder to carry out. The buyer sends funds upfront, and the merchant receives a transaction record on-chain rather than relying on revocable card authorization.
Lewis also said blockchain-based payments improve accountability and may be especially attractive to international buyers. In some global markets, credit card usage is limited, processing can be unreliable, or local payment restrictions can make cross-border purchases difficult. For those customers, paying in BTC or BCH can reduce friction and expand access to bullion products that might otherwise be harder to buy.
According to Lewis, Onegold expects a substantial number of cryptocurrency buyers to come from international markets where accepting cards is “not always practical.” He added that introducing bitcoin and bitcoin cash as payment methods not only helps protect the company’s own commercial interests, but also increases payment transparency and efficiency across the platform.
Physically Backed Digital Bullion as a Differentiator
A central part of Onegold’s pitch is that its digital bullion is backed by 100 percent physical metal, rather than operating as a synthetic or purely financial product. The company says customer holdings are represented digitally while the underlying gold and silver remain stored in secure custody at the Royal Canadian Mint. This model is intended to combine the convenience of online trading with the assurance associated with direct precious metals ownership.
Onegold further argues that this structure compares favorably with some exchange-traded products linked to gold. While exchange-traded funds and similar instruments can provide electronic exposure to metal prices, they do not always allow fast or simple redemption into physical bullion. In some cases, investors can only exit their positions through cash settlement instead of receiving metal directly.
By emphasizing redeemability, Onegold is attempting to distinguish itself from paper gold products. The company says customers can redeem stored assets “with the click of a button,” after which physical metals can be shipped to their door through Apmex. That redemption pathway is central to the company’s claim that digitally represented bullion can still preserve the qualities many investors associate with owning real metal.
A Convergence of Hard Assets and Digital Payment Rails
The announcement reflects a broader convergence between cryptocurrencies and traditional stores of value. Gold has historically been viewed as a hedge, a reserve asset, and a defensive allocation during periods of uncertainty. Bitcoin, while far newer and far more volatile, is often discussed by its supporters as a digital alternative to legacy monetary systems. Onegold’s new payment option brings these two narratives together in a practical retail setting: using crypto to acquire fully backed precious metals exposure.
From a business perspective, the decision also fits the operational needs of bullion commerce. Precious metals sellers often need payment methods that settle quickly, reduce reversal risk, and work internationally. Cryptocurrency can address each of those concerns to varying degrees, especially when integrated through a processor like Bitpay that helps merchants manage invoicing and settlement workflows.
At the same time, Onegold’s model targets customers who may want digital convenience without giving up the comfort of physical backing. The platform’s message is not that digital metals replace bullion ownership, but that blockchain-based records and crypto-enabled payments can modernize how bullion is bought, held, and redeemed.
What the Move Signals for the Market
Although the announcement is specific to Onegold, it highlights a broader trend in financial services and alternative assets: payment optionality is becoming part of product strategy. By supporting BTC and BCH, Onegold is opening the door to a segment of buyers that prefers to hold and spend cryptocurrency rather than convert it back into fiat before making a purchase.
The move may also be read as a sign that businesses serving conservative asset classes are becoming more comfortable with digital asset infrastructure, at least when it solves a clear commercial problem. In this case, the rationale is not framed around speculation. Instead, it centers on fraud reduction, payment transparency, international accessibility, and alignment between digitally native buyers and a digitally accessible hard-asset product.
For Onegold, adding cryptocurrency support appears to be the logical next step in a platform designed to digitize bullion ownership without severing its connection to real, redeemable metal. With BTC and BCH now accepted, the company is betting that a meaningful share of bullion demand will come from users who value both blockchain-based payments and physically backed assets.