BullionVault: Platform Profile

Overview

BullionVault gives individual investors online access to professional-market physical bullion.

Current supported metals include:

• gold;
• silver;
• platinum;
• palladium.

This is not a gold ETF, mining stock, futures contract or tokenized crypto product.

BullionVault states that clients own allocated physical bullion held in professional vaults.

The platform combines:

• physical ownership;
• vault custody;
• insurance;
• an online order board;
• direct user-to-user market liquidity;
• Daily Price transactions;
• physical-withdrawal options.

The main cost advantage appears at balances large enough that minimum monthly custody charges do not dominate the percentage rate.

May fit better for

• investors seeking allocated physical bullion rather than a security;
• investors who want online trading without taking immediate home delivery;
• investors who value vault choice;
• investors who want gold, silver, platinum and palladium in one system;
• larger balances that can absorb custody minimums efficiently;
• investors comfortable with English-law ownership and custody arrangements.

May fit less well for

• very small accounts affected by minimum monthly custody charges;
• investors who want SIPC brokerage protection;
• users who specifically want an FCA-regulated securities broker;
• investors seeking dividends or interest;
• users unwilling to pay ongoing vault/storage charges;
• investors who need physical delivery to be cheap or immediate.

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Ownership is physical bullion, not a security

Current BullionVault materials state:

• Physical bullion: Yes
• Allocated: Yes
• Client legal property: Yes
• ETF: No
• Security: No
• Derivative: No
• Unallocated dealer claim: No

The standard custody model is quantity ownership in a specified vault.

A customer's ownership does not necessarily correspond to one individually reserved bar.

BullionVault also allows eligible balances to reserve specific whole bars.

That is a different feature.

you own a uniquely numbered bar.

The better statement is:

the customer owns an allocated quantity of physical bullion in the selected vault, with specific-bar reservation available when applicable.

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Current metals and vaults

BullionVault currently offers gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

Its homepage identifies professional vault choices including:

• Zurich;
• London;
• Toronto;
• Singapore;
• New York.

Availability can differ by metal.

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Live order-board dealing fees

Current standard order-board rate:

• Dealing fee:
• Under 75000: 0.50%
• 75000 to 825000: 0.10%
• Above 825000: 0.05%

The volume bands reset under BullionVault's annual/account mechanics and are calculated separately by metal.

For silver, platinum and palladium, the platform legally characterizes the analogous charge as a mark-up/mark-down rather than a commission.

Most smaller users begin at the 0.50% tier.

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Custody and insurance fees

Current tariff:

• Custody:
• Gold:
• Annual rate: 0.12%
• Monthly minimum: $4
• Silver:
• Annual rate: 0.48%
• Monthly minimum: $8
• Platinum:
• Annual rate: 0.48%
• Monthly minimum: $8
• Palladium:
• Annual rate: 0.48%
• Monthly minimum: $8
• Insurance included: Yes
• Billing: monthly

The minimum changes small-account economics dramatically.

Example: $1,000 gold balance

Headline annual percentage:

$1,000 × 0.12% = $1.20

But the monthly minimum produces:

$4 × 12 = $48/year

Simplified effective custody cost:

$48 ÷ $1,000 = 4.8%

before trading fees.

Example: $100,000 gold balance

$100,000 × 0.12% = $120/year

The percentage charge exceeds the $48 annualized minimum.

Effective percentage remains approximately 0.12% before trading fees.

This is why BullionVault itself cautions that very small overall investments can be inefficient.

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Daily Price is a separate execution method

Current Daily Price fee:

• Daily Price fee: 0.50%
• GBP EUR currency switch fee: 0.30% where applicable

They are separate execution paths.

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Cash withdrawal fees

Current tariff references include:

• US domestic ACH withdrawal: $10
• International SWIFT: typically not more than $30

Correspondent-bank charges can also apply to international transfers.

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Trading liquidity is a marketplace, not a guaranteed price

BullionVault operates an online order board.

Current homepage materials describe 24/7 access and the ability to sell at any time.

A functioning marketplace can offer substantial liquidity.

It does not guarantee:

• a specific spread;
• a specific execution price;
• uninterrupted service;
• no market gap;
• no counterparty/order-book imbalance.

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Physical withdrawal exists but can be expensive

BullionVault permits physical withdrawal under applicable rules.

The system is optimized primarily for vaulted professional-market ownership, not frequent small physical withdrawals.

Physical delivery can involve:

• bar-size constraints;
• fabrication/coin costs;
• armoured transport;
• release fees;
• insurance;
• taxes;
• customs;
• destination eligibility.

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Bailment and custody structure

BullionVault describes its custody structure as a bailment under its terms and storage agreements.

The current public ownership proposition states that customer bullion is:

• allocated;
• physically held;
• segregated from company finances;
• insured against specified physical risks;
• reconciled through its Daily Audit process.

Insurance is not market-loss protection.

If gold falls 20%, vault insurance does not reimburse the investor for the price decline.

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BullionVault is not an FCA securities broker

Current BullionVault homepage explains that its spot physical-bullion activity falls outside the scope of UK formal financial-services regulation that applies to securities firms and that it is not FCA-regulated for this service.

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U.S. investor protection language

For a U.S. reader:

• SIPC: No
• FDIC bullion: No
• Market loss protection: No

The investor owns physical commodity property rather than a SIPC-covered securities position.

Cash custody uses BullionVault's client-money structure under its governing terms, not a U.S. consumer bank account offered directly to the investor.

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IRA access needs a custody distinction

BullionVault publishes services for U.S. IRA custodians.

That does not make BullionVault itself a U.S. self-directed IRA custodian.

Assessment

BullionVault solves a real physical-metal problem: most individual investors cannot efficiently buy, store and trade professional good-delivery bars on their own.

The platform lets users own a measured quantity of allocated bullion while sharing the infrastructure of institutional vaulting and a large online marketplace.

Its fee schedule is unusually transparent.

The headline gold custody rate of 0.12% is low, but the $4 monthly minimum means account size matters more than the headline percentage for smaller balances. A $1,000 gold account can experience a radically different effective cost than a $100,000 account.

The product also sits outside the regulatory framework familiar to U.S. brokerage investors.

That is not automatically a defect. It is a consequence of owning spot physical property instead of securities.

It does mean investors should evaluate:

• English-law property rights;
• custody arrangements;
• insurance;
• operational controls;
• marketplace liquidity;
• withdrawal logistics

instead of looking for SIPC or FCA brokerage protection that does not apply to the product.