--- title: "Vaulted Review 2026: Fees, Custody and Delivery" url: https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews/vaulted kind: platform-review updated: 2026-11-02 description: "Vaulted review: fees from spot, delivery terms and custody for gold at the Royal Canadian Mint and silver at HSBC, from the customer agreement and the Bureau Veritas counts." publisher: AltStreet (https://altstreet.investments) license: Public factual pages may be read, quoted and cited with attribution and a link. Bulk redistribution is not permitted. --- # Vaulted Review 2026: Fees, Custody and Delivery Vaulted is the McAlvany family dealer's app for buying gold stored at the Royal Canadian Mint and silver stored at HSBC in London, in any dollar amount. Per its FAQ, gold costs 1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under spot to sell, about 3.6% for a round trip, silver 3.0% each way, plus 0.4% or 0.6% a year in maintenance. Delivery is available in coins and bars from the dealer's US inventory; the specific serial-numbered bar allocated in the vault cannot currently be shipped. The agreement describes allocated metal that is not the dealer's asset and cannot be pledged; how those rights would be recognized if the dealer failed depends on storage arrangements that are not published. AltStreet score: 45.3 (C), scored November 2, 2026. Method: https://altstreet.investments/platforms | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Platform | Vaulted | | What it is | Precious Metals Dealer App Selling Allocated Gold and Silver (Not SEC Registered) | | Asset class | Allocated physical gold (Royal Canadian Mint kilo bars) and silver (London Good Delivery bars at HSBC) | | Website | vaulted.com | | Review first published | November 2, 2026 | | Last updated | November 2, 2026 | | AltStreet relationship | None: no affiliate, sponsorship or partnership | ## The short version Vaulted sells gold and silver in any dollar amount, stored in named institutional vaults, at published percentages of spot. Gold is 1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under to sell, about 3.6% for a round trip, and silver 3.0% each way, with annual maintenance of 0.4% on gold and 0.6% on silver. Holdings can be sold back to the dealer for cash within about three business days or delivered as coins and bars from the dealer's US inventory; the bar allocated in the vault itself cannot currently be withdrawn. The customer agreement, with McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, describes the arrangement in two ways at once: the opening says customers "directly own physically allocated gold and silver", and Part 1 frames each purchase as a prepaid forward contract under which the customer holds title to the allocated metal as a nominee. It identifies allocated bars or bar sections, says they are not the dealer's or the vault's asset, and bars pledging or leasing them. The open question is how those rights would be recognized and enforced if the dealer failed, which turns on storage agreements with the Royal Canadian Mint and HSBC that are not published. Bureau Veritas counts the bars in the dealer's vault accounts each year and finds them matching the records; its procedures do not include a reconciliation to individual customer allocations. - **1.8% / 3.0% each way** Total cost from spot per the FAQ: gold a 0.8% premium on a wholesale price the FAQ says stays 1% from spot, so 1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under to sell, about 3.6% round trip; silver 2.0% plus 1%, about 6.0% round trip. Plus annual maintenance of 0.4% (gold) or 0.6% (silver) of average value. The agreement states no rate and lets the maintenance fee rise on 30 days' notice. - **Bar withdrawal vs delivery** The FAQ says holders can request delivery of gold or silver at any time, settled in coins and bars from the dealer's US inventory. Since a change between November 2025 and January 2026, the specific serial-numbered kilo bar allocated in the vault is not shipped, which the FAQ attributes to insurers; the allocated silver bars cannot be withdrawn either. Replacement products carry retail premiums, so the ounces delivered are fewer than the ounces held. - **Allocated, not pledgeable** The agreement says customers "directly own physically allocated gold and silver", identifies bars or measured bar sections for each customer, states that allocated metal is "neither an asset nor a liability of the vault or MPM", and bars pledging or leasing it. Part 1 also describes each purchase as a prepaid forward contract with the customer holding title as a nominee. The storage agreements that would govern recognition of those rights in a failure are not published. - **Counted yearly** Bureau Veritas reconciles the custodian's records to the dealer's, inspects bars for number, brand and purity, weighs a sample of gold bars, and reports bars and ounces held in the dealer's accounts: 831 gold bars and 26,717.481 fine ounces at the Mint and 489 silver bars and 472,201.6 gross ounces at HSBC on September 14, 2026. The procedures do not include a reconciliation to individual customer allocations. - **Form 1099-B** Vaulted's FAQ says sales are reported to the IRS on Form 1099-B, issued in January after the year of sale, and that delivery is not a taxable event. It also says Vaulted gold gets the same capital gains treatment as stocks; physical bullion is generally a collectible under the tax code, so that claim is worth asking a tax adviser about. - **Dealer, not a securities firm** McAlvany Precious Metals files nothing with the SEC and its terms say Vaulted is not regulated by the SEC or CFTC as a broker-dealer, exchange or futures commission merchant. FinCEN's rules treat qualifying precious metals dealers as financial institutions for anti-money-laundering purposes. AltStreet located no enforcement action naming Vaulted or the dealer in the sources searched. Data note: Contract terms are from the End User Agreement as served November 2, 2026, which carries no date or version number. Holdings are from the Bureau Veritas reports in bars and troy ounces (gold in fine ounces; silver in fine ounces in 2024 and gross ounces in 2025 and 2026); dollar values beside them are AltStreet reference values at COMEX front-month futures closes on each count date from the Yahoo Finance chart API (market data; LBMA's own price files were not reachable). Fees and product statements are from vaulted.com and the app store listings captured November 2, 2026, with earlier wording from Wayback snapshots. AltStreet had no account and did not see the app's prices, statements or serial-number display. ## Key figures | Figure | What it is | Context | | --- | --- | --- | | 3.6% / 6.0% | Buying gold through Vaulted and selling it back costs about 3.6% of the spot price, so the gold price has to rise that much before you break even. | Round-trip cost from spot for gold and silver per the FAQ, before 0.4% or 0.6% a year maintenance. Gold: 0.8% premium plus a 1% spread each way. Silver: 2.0% plus 1%. The agreement states no rate. | | Coins and bars | How delivery is settled: replacement products from the dealer's US inventory, at retail premiums. | The serial-numbered bar allocated in the vault is not currently shipped; the allocated silver bars cannot be withdrawn. | | RCM + HSBC | The vaults: Royal Canadian Mint, Ottawa (gold) and HSBC Bank plc, London (silver). | Institutional custodians, named and counted yearly. The storage agreements are with the dealer and are not published. | | 26,717 oz | Gold in the dealer's Royal Canadian Mint account on September 14, 2026, per Bureau Veritas. | 831 bars; about $116.3 million at the COMEX close that day (AltStreet reference value, market data). The counts cover the dealer's vault accounts, not individual customer allocations. | ## Verdict Vaulted is a convenient, clearly priced way to accumulate gold and silver stored at the Royal Canadian Mint and HSBC in London. Gold costs about 1.8% from spot each way and silver 3.0%, plus 0.4% or 0.6% a year, so it suits holders measured in years rather than traders. Delivery is available as coins and bars from the dealer's inventory at retail premiums; the allocated vault bar itself is not shipped. The agreement allocates metal to each customer, keeps it off the dealer's books and bars pledging it. The questions worth putting to the company are how those rights would be recognized if the dealer failed, which depends on unpublished storage arrangements, and whether it will publish the bar list and a reconciliation of the yearly counts to customer allocations. **Best for** - Regular buyers of gold who value storage at a named institutional vault and plan to hold for years. - Buyers who want automated purchases in small amounts at a published spread. **Look elsewhere if** - You plan to withdraw the specific bar you were allocated, or to take delivery outside the United States. - You trade often enough for a 3.6% (gold) or 6.0% (silver) round trip to matter. - You want an IRA. **Strengths** - Gold at the Royal Canadian Mint and silver at HSBC London, named in the agreement and the reports. - Yearly bar counts by Bureau Veritas, an independent inspection firm, published on the site. - Fee rates published as percentages of spot, with the total from spot stated for each metal. - Contract terms that allocate metal to each customer, keep it off the dealer's and vault's books, and bar pledging or leasing it. - Sales reported on Form 1099-B per the company, and no enforcement action located in the sources searched. **Limitations** - About 3.6% round trip on gold and 6.0% on silver plus maintenance; rates absent from the agreement; a home page fee line narrower than the FAQ. - Delivery in replacement products at retail premiums, US addresses only; the allocated vault bar is not withdrawn. - No published process for customer metal if the dealer failed, and storage agreements that are not public. - Counts that cover the dealer's vault accounts without a customer reconciliation or bar list. - No financial statements for the dealer, and several names used for the operator. ## Who it fits | Investor | Fit | Why | | --- | --- | --- | | Small, regular buyers who want gold stored at a named institutional vault | neutral | | | Buyers who want to withdraw the specific bar they were allocated | poor-fit | | | Buyers who want independent evidence that their own allocation is covered | neutral | | | Short-term traders of gold or silver | poor-fit | | | Retirement accounts | poor-fit | | ## Questions **Is Vaulted legit?** Vaulted is a real product of McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, a Colorado precious metals dealer, and its gold and silver are stored at the Royal Canadian Mint and HSBC in London, where Bureau Veritas counts the bars in the dealer's accounts every year. AltStreet located no enforcement action naming Vaulted or the dealer in the sources searched. It is a precious metals dealer rather than a securities firm: it files nothing with the SEC, and its terms say it is not regulated by the SEC or CFTC as a broker-dealer or futures firm. **Do you own the gold at Vaulted?** The agreement says Vaulted "enables you to directly own physically allocated gold and silver", identifies bars or bar sections allocated to you, says allocated metal is not an asset of the dealer or the vault, and bars pledging or leasing it. It also describes each purchase as a prepaid forward contract under which you hold title as a nominee, as security for the dealer's delivery obligation. How those rights would be recognized if the dealer failed depends on storage arrangements with the vaults that are not published, so it is worth asking the company in writing. **What are Vaulted's fees?** Per the FAQ, gold costs 1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under spot to sell, a 0.8% premium plus a 1% wholesale spread each way, so about 3.6% round trip. Silver is 3.0% each way, about 6.0% round trip. Maintenance is 0.4% a year on gold and 0.6% on silver, billed each January and July. Delivery adds shipping and handling plus retail product premiums. The agreement states no rate and lets the maintenance fee rise on 30 days' notice. **Are Vaulted's audits real?** Yes. Bureau Veritas Commodities UK Ltd reconciles the vaults' records to the dealer's, inspects the bars and weighs a sample of gold bars, and reports the bars and ounces held in the dealer's accounts: 831 gold bars and 26,717.481 ounces, and 489 silver bars and 472,201.6 gross ounces, on September 14, 2026. The procedures do not include a reconciliation to individual customer allocations, so ask for the bar list if you want to match your serial number. **Can I take delivery of my gold from Vaulted?** Yes, as coins and bars from the dealer's US inventory, delivered to a US address, at retail premiums. Since early 2026 the specific serial-numbered kilo bar allocated to you in the vault is not shipped, which the FAQ attributes to insurers. Allocated silver bars cannot be withdrawn; silver is delivered in coins and smaller bars. **Is Vaulted gold insured?** The site says every gold bar is fully insured by Lloyds of London. The agreement limits recovery for a vault loss to the pro-rata share of what the vault pays for losses it is reasonably responsible for and excludes force majeure. No policy, insured party or limit is published. **How is Vaulted taxed?** Vaulted's FAQ says sales are reported on Form 1099-B in January after the year of sale and that delivery is not a taxable event. It also says Vaulted gold gets the same capital gains treatment as stocks. Physical gold and silver bullion are generally collectibles under the Internal Revenue Code, with long-term gains taxed at up to 28%, so ask a tax adviser how the treatment applies to this contract. Vaulted offers no IRA. ## Evidence appendix Platform website captured November 2, 2026. The customer contract, custody reports and entity records were read in full. The End User Agreement was taken from secure.vaulted.com on November 2, 2026 and compared sentence by sentence with the June 8, 2023 Wayback copy. The six Bureau Veritas reports were downloaded from the company's server, including four no longer linked from the audits page. The site was captured with Firecrawl and compared with Wayback snapshots from 2017 to 2026 for fee, delivery, storage and contract changes. Entity facts come from the Colorado Secretary of State; adviser facts from IAPD and the adviser's Form ADV; legal facts from AltStreet's enforcement tables, BrokerCheck, EDGAR, the FinCEN MSB register and CourtListener. Reference values multiply the counted ounces by COMEX front-month futures closes on each date from the Yahoo Finance chart API. AltStreet had no account and did not see app prices, statements or serial numbers. **Highlights** - FAQ fees: 1.8% from spot each way on gold, 3.0% on silver, 0.4% and 0.6% a year. - FAQ delivery: "You can request delivery of your gold or silver at any time" and, since early 2026, "We currently do not support delivery of specific serial-numbered bars out of the vault." - Agreement: "Vaulted enables you to directly own physically allocated gold and silver"; "a prepaid forward contract for delivery of physical precious metal"; allocated metal "neither an asset nor a liability of the vault or MPM". - Bureau Veritas, gold, 2026: "held title to 831 Royal Canadian Mint Gold Bars with a weight of 26,717.481 fine troy ounces". - FAQ tax: sales reported "on a standard form 1099-B". **Primary source pages** - End User Agreement (current), opening: "Vaulted enables you to directly own physically allocated gold and silver in any quantity"; "The Vaulted Account is a service of McAlvany Precious Metals LLC". - End User Agreement Part 1: "you enter into a prepaid forward contract for delivery of physical precious metal"; "You will hold the title to this precious metal as a nominee, so that it can be your security guaranteeing our obligations under this agreement"; "Precious metal that is allocated for you is neither an asset nor a liability of the vault or MPM."; neither MPM nor the vault can pledge allocated metal; the vaults "provide compensation for any loss or damage for which it is reasonably responsible". - End User Agreement Parts 6 to 8 and 15: Vaulted Cash Account "a non-interest-bearing demand deposit account", not FDIC insured; prices from "our estimate of the wholesale precious metal price"; Maintenance Fee may rise "after providing you with thirty (30) calendar days notice"; sale settlement attempted "within three (3) Business Days" on a best-efforts basis. - End User Agreement Parts 26 and 34 to 40: liability only for willful misconduct or gross negligence; no fiduciary obligation; discussion, AAA mediation, then binding AAA commercial arbitration in Durango; class and jury waivers; loser pays legal fees; Colorado law. - Bureau Veritas, gold, Royal Canadian Mint Ottawa, account 51188769: 1,087 bars, 34,944.876 fine oz at April 18, 2024; 972 bars, 31,250.772 oz at June 30, 2025; 831 bars, 26,717.481 oz at September 14, 2026. Procedures: reconcile custodian to administrator records, visually check bars (the letter says each bar, the summary page one bar from each pallet), weigh a sample of about 2.5% of gold bars; advised equals found. - Bureau Veritas, silver, HSBC Bank plc London, account 3917: 294 bars, 284,152.700 fine oz at April 5, 2024; 558 bars, 542,555.200 oz at July 21, 2025; 489 bars, 472,201.600 gross oz at September 14, 2026. - vaulted.com FAQ, captured November 2, 2026: gold "In total, you pay 1.8% over the spot price"; silver 3.0%; maintenance 0.4% and 0.6%; "You can request delivery of your gold or silver at any time"; "We currently do not support delivery of specific serial-numbered bars out of the vault"; sales reported "on a standard form 1099-B" issued in January after the year of sale; "Every gold bar is fully insured by Lloyds of London". - Colorado Secretary of State: McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, ID 19891111796, good standing; trade names Vaulted (April 17, 2018), ICA and International Collectors Associates (July 27, 2023); Vaulted, LLC, ID 20251674014, formed June 18, 2025. - 31 CFR Part 1027: dealers in precious metals with more than $50,000 of purchases and sales in the prior year must maintain a written anti-money-laundering program with a compliance officer, training and independent testing. - Royal Canadian Mint storage page: allocated storage offers "Direct ownership of specific metals; Segregated and uniquely identified"; available "through institutional or business-to-business relationships." Royal Canadian Mint Act s. 5: "The Mint is for all its purposes an agent of Her Majesty in right of Canada." ## Related - Full review (HTML): https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews/vaulted - Every platform review: https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews - Methodology and scoring: https://altstreet.investments/platforms - Category hub: https://altstreet.investments/categories/precious-metals-bullion --- Source page: https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews/vaulted Machine index: https://altstreet.investments/llms.txt AltStreet reads what platforms, funds and issuers file with the SEC and what they tell investors, and publishes the difference. Figures are as filed or as captured on the date stated; nothing here is investment advice.