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.
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What the data actually shows - TL;DR
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.
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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delivered as coins and bars from the dealer's US inventory; the bar allocated in the vault itself cannot currently be withdrawn.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Quick Verdict
Is this platform right for you?
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.
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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.
Avoid 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.
Top 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.
Key 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.
Compare Before Deciding
Where Vaulted fits against alternatives
Use these hooks to pressure-test whether this is the right platform, or whether a nearby alternative matches the job better.
How this compares to Paxos Review
Paxos Review
PAXG allocated gold from a national trust bank, with monthly KPMG attestations matched to on-chain supply.
How this compares to WhiskyInvestDirect Review
WhiskyInvestDirect Review
A physical-commodity venue that publishes a monthly client-by-client reconciliation and filed accounts.
How this compares to Paxos
Paxos
PAXG allocated gold issued by a national trust bank with monthly KPMG attestations reconciled to on-chain supply.
Quick Answers
What most investors want to know first
The highest-signal facts first: minimums, liquidity reality, K-1 timing, and whether distributions are actually part of the experience.
Liquidity
There is no market between customers. MPM is the only counterparty, and the agreement lets it limit sell orders to stock exchange hours, execute large orders in lots at different prices, and delay settlement if it cannot trade in the wholesale market.
K-1 Timing
Not applicable. Vaulted says sales are reported on Form 1099-B in January after the year of sale.
Distributions
Cash arrives only on a sale.
Overview
Platform Overview
A concise read on what the platform is, how the structure works, and where the practical friction shows up for real investors.
McAlvany Precious Metals LLC (MPM), a Colorado company at 166 Turner Drive, Durango, sells gold and silver through the Vaulted app and website, a trade name it registered in Colorado in April 2018. A customer funds a cash balance by bank transfer or wire, buys any dollar amount, and is allocated whole bars or measured sections of bars: Royal Canadian Mint kilo bars of 999.9 gold at the Mint in Ottawa, and London Good Delivery silver bars of about 1,000 ounces at HSBC Bank in London. VaultPlan automates purchases weekly, every two weeks or monthly.
MPM prices orders from its estimate of the wholesale price plus its premium, buys holdings back for cash, and delivers coins and bars from its US inventory on request. Every client is assigned a personal advisor. The McAlvany family also controls McAlvany Wealth Management, LLC, an SEC-registered adviser at the same address, whose brochure does not mention Vaulted.
The June 2023 customer agreement was titled the Royal Canadian Mint End User Agreement and named International Collectors Associates LLC, the McAlvany business long known as ICA. Silver at HSBC London appears on the site from June 2024. The current agreement names McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, adds HSBC and silver, and no longer includes the earlier separate "Directly Held" status for gold.
The audits page appeared in September 2024 with the first Bureau Veritas counts. In early 2026 the FAQ stopped offering withdrawal of the serial-numbered kilo bar, and in April 2026 the site was redesigned around a one-time 1.8% fee line.
Founded & Structure
McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, Colorado SOS ID 19891111796, in good standing, 166 Turner Drive, Durango; the agreement calls it a precious metals brokerage firm established in 1972. It owns the Colorado trade names Vaulted (April 17, 2018), ICA and International Collectors Associates (both July 27, 2023). Vaulted, LLC was formed in Colorado on June 18, 2025 at the same address, with no stated role. The affiliate adviser's brochure lists David S. McAlvany as President of McAlvany Precious Metals since 2007.
What you buy
Allocated gold or silver under the End User Agreement: whole bars or measured bar sections identified to you, described as direct ownership and, in Part 1, as a prepaid forward contract with nominee title as security for delivery. Gold: Royal Canadian Mint 999.9 kilo bars. Silver: London Good Delivery bars of about 1,000 ounces. Any dollar amount; VaultPlan automatic purchases.
Where it sits
Gold at the Royal Canadian Mint, Ottawa (MPM account 51188769); silver at HSBC Bank plc, London (account 3917), per the Bureau Veritas reports. The agreement reserves the right to add vaults. The storage agreements are between MPM and the vaults and are not published.
Fees
Per the FAQ: gold 0.8% premium plus a 1% wholesale spread to spot, 1.8% over spot to buy and under to sell; silver 2.0% plus 1%, 3.0% each way; annual maintenance 0.4% gold, 0.6% silver. Delivery: shipping and handling plus retail product premiums, no current list. The agreement states no rate and allows the maintenance fee to rise on 30 days' notice.
Holdings counted
Gold: 1,087 bars, 34,944.876 fine oz (April 18, 2024); 972 bars, 31,250.772 oz (June 30, 2025); 831 bars, 26,717.481 oz (September 14, 2026). Silver: 294 bars, 284,152.7 fine oz (April 5, 2024); 558 bars, 542,555.2 oz (July 21, 2025); 489 bars, 472,201.6 gross oz (September 14, 2026). Reference values at COMEX front-month closes (market data, AltStreet's calculation): gold about $83.8 million, $103.4 million and $116.3 million; silver about $7.8 million, $21.2 million and $30.0 million. These describe the dealer's vault accounts, not customer assets.
Regulatory position
A precious metals dealer: no SEC filings, and the 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. Customer cash is not FDIC insured. Affiliate McAlvany Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC-registered adviser (CRD 146021).
Visual Summary
Vaulted beside Paxos's PAXG, the other allocated-gold product AltStreet has reviewed
Both offer allocated gold held in a professional vault. They differ in who stands behind the arrangement and how holdings are evidenced. PAXG figures are from AltStreet's Paxos review and KPMG's reports as of September 30, 2026.
Counterparty
Vaulted
McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, a Colorado precious metals dealer
Paxos PAXG
Paxos Trust Company, N.A., a national trust bank
Supervision
Vaulted
Dealer; FinCEN anti-money-laundering rules for qualifying dealers; no SEC filings
Paxos PAXG
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Vault
Vaulted
Royal Canadian Mint (gold), HSBC London (silver)
Paxos PAXG
Brink's and ICBC Standard Bank, London
Holdings evidence
Vaulted
Annual agreed-procedures count of the dealer's vault accounts
Paxos PAXG
Monthly KPMG attestation of token backing, matched by AltStreet to on-chain supply
Gold held
Vaulted
26,717.481 oz (September 14, 2026)
Paxos PAXG
435,306 oz (September 30, 2026)
Cost to buy and sell
Vaulted
About 1.8% from spot each way, plus 0.4% a year
Paxos PAXG
See the Paxos review; PAXG fees were in transition
Delivery
Vaulted
Coins and bars from dealer inventory, US addresses
Paxos PAXG
Per Paxos terms for verified customers
Investor Operations
The practical questions investors actually care about: when tax documents arrive, how cash distributions work, and whether capital can be exited before the underlying asset is sold.
Tax Documents
K-1 Timing
What to expect
Not applicable. Vaulted says sales are reported on Form 1099-B in January after the year of sale.
Cash Flow
Distributions
Frequency
None. Metal pays no income.
Timing
Cash arrives only on a sale.
Consistency
Not applicable.
Liquidity
Exit Reality
Holding period
None, except 60 days on ACH-funded holdings before withdrawal or delivery.
Exit options
- Sell back to MPM at its bid, which the FAQ puts at 1.8% under spot for gold and 3.0% for silver, with cash credited on a best-efforts basis within three business days.
- Take delivery of coins and bars from MPM's US inventory, at retail premiums, to a US address.
Secondary market
There is no market between customers. MPM is the only counterparty, and the agreement lets it limit sell orders to stock exchange hours, execute large orders in lots at different prices, and delay settlement if it cannot trade in the wholesale market.
Investment Structures
Vaulted gold: allocated Royal Canadian Mint kilo bars
Any dollar amount of 999.9 gold, allocated as whole kilo bars or measured bar sections at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa. 1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under to sell per the FAQ; 0.4% a year maintenance. Delivery in coins and bars from MPM's US inventory; the allocated kilo bar itself is not currently shipped from the vault.
Vaulted silver: allocated London Good Delivery bars at HSBC
Any dollar amount of silver allocated in London Good Delivery bars of about 1,000 ounces or bar sections at HSBC Bank plc in London. 3.0% from spot each way; 0.6% a year maintenance. The allocated bars cannot be withdrawn; delivery is in coins and smaller bars. Offered since 2024.
VaultPlan automatic purchases
Recurring purchases weekly, every two weeks or monthly from a linked checking account per the VaultPlan page; the FAQ lists monthly and every two weeks. No separate VaultPlan fee or terms are published.
Risk
Risk Structure
This is where the marketplace pitch gives way to the actual operating reality: delayed exits, limited disclosure, fee drag, and path-dependent outcomes.
Cost
About 3.6% of spot round trip on gold and 6.0% on silver per the FAQ, plus 0.4% or 0.6% a year, with the agreement silent on rates and the maintenance fee changeable on notice.
Delivery
Coins and bars from dealer inventory at retail premiums, US addresses only; the allocated vault bar is not currently withdrawn.
Ownership terms
Allocated bars or sections, described as direct ownership and as a prepaid forward contract with nominee title, kept off the dealer's books and not pledgeable. Recognition in a dealer failure depends on unpublished storage arrangements.
Custody evidence
Annual agreed-procedures counts of the dealer's vault accounts, without a reconciliation to individual customer allocations or a published bar list.
Counterparty
McAlvany Precious Metals LLC, the seller, buyer, price setter and ledger keeper, with no published financial statements.
Vaults
Royal Canadian Mint and HSBC London, institutional custodians, under agreements with MPM that customers cannot read.
Getting in and out costs more than the headline
The FAQ puts gold at 1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under to sell, about 3.6% round trip, and silver at 3.0% each way, about 6.0%, plus 0.4% or 0.6% a year. The home page describes a one-time 1.8% fee with no management fees.
Why it matters
On gold the price has to rise about 3.6% before a holder breaks even, more after maintenance; on silver about 6.0%. The agreement states no rate, and the maintenance fee can rise on 30 days' notice.
Mitigation / verification
Compare the app's buy price and sell price with a published spot price on the day you trade, and save a copy of the FAQ fee section.
Delivery comes as replacement products
Delivery is available at any time per the FAQ, settled in coins and bars from MPM's US inventory to US addresses. The serial-numbered kilo bar allocated in the vault is not currently shipped, and the allocated silver bars cannot be withdrawn.
Why it matters
Replacement products carry retail premiums set by MPM, so a holder receives fewer ounces than the account shows, and a holder outside the United States cannot take delivery.
Mitigation / verification
Ask an advisor for a written delivery quote, in ounces received, before you need it.
How your rights would be recognized if the dealer failed
The agreement allocates metal to each customer, keeps it off MPM's and the vault's books and bars pledging it, and describes the arrangement both as direct ownership and as a prepaid forward contract with nominee title. It has no clause on MPM's failure, and the storage agreements are not published.
Why it matters
The protections in the contract are real; whether and how quickly a customer could recover allocated metal in a failure depends on how the vaults record it and on the legal process that would apply, which the public documents do not show.
Mitigation / verification
Ask the company in writing how customer allocations are recorded at the Royal Canadian Mint and HSBC and what process applies to customer metal if MPM fails.
The counts cover the dealer's accounts
Bureau Veritas reconciles the custodian's records to the dealer's and inspects the bars; its procedures do not include a reconciliation to individual customer allocations, and no bar list is published.
Why it matters
The counts show the metal held in the dealer's vault accounts; matching those bars to each customer's allocation would need the bar list and the customer ledger.
Mitigation / verification
Ask for the bar list behind the latest count and check the serial number in your app against it. Ask whether any reconciliation of customer allocations to vault holdings is performed, and ask the company to clarify whether every gold bar or one bar per pallet is visually checked.
Insurance is described more broadly on the site than in the contract
The site says every gold bar is fully insured by Lloyds of London. The agreement says recovery for a loss is the pro-rata share of what the vault pays for losses it is reasonably responsible for, and excludes force majeure events.
Why it matters
The insured party, policy limits and exclusions are not published, and the customer is not party to the storage or insurance arrangements.
Mitigation / verification
Ask for the certificate of insurance or the relevant terms of the vault's coverage, including who is insured and the limit per location.
Customer cash is a balance with the dealer
Uninvested cash is a non-interest-bearing balance with MPM, not a bank deposit and not FDIC insured, held in an Alpine Bank account titled Vaulted; the agreement does not say whether it is segregated.
Why it matters
Cash waiting to be invested, or sale proceeds not yet withdrawn, depends on the dealer until it is withdrawn.
Mitigation / verification
Keep uninvested cash small and ask whether customer cash is held in a segregated or for-benefit-of account.
Regulatory & Legal Posture
Security Status
Not offered as a security. The company describes the product as a sale of physical precious metal and files nothing with the SEC; its website terms say Vaulted is not a broker-dealer, exchange or futures commission merchant and is not regulated by the SEC or CFTC in that sense. AltStreet has not determined how securities or commodities law applies to the product.
The relevant primary sources describe a dealer's perimeter rather than an investment product's. FinCEN's rules treat dealers in precious metals above $50,000 of annual purchases and sales as financial institutions for Bank Secrecy Act purposes, with written anti-money-laundering programs, compliance officers and independent testing (31 CFR Part 1027); that is separate from money services business registration. The Commodity Exchange Act excludes from future delivery any sale of a cash commodity for deferred shipment or delivery, and the CFTC's 2013 interpretation applies its retail commodity rules to leveraged, margined or financed transactions unless actual delivery occurs within 28 days; the agreement describes no leverage or financing.
State consumer protection and contract law apply as they would to any seller. AltStreet records these as the relevant sources, not as conclusions about Vaulted.
- McAlvany Wealth Management, LLC (CRD 146021) is an SEC-registered adviser with $224,230,606 of regulatory assets under management per its September 2, 2026 filing and no disciplinary disclosures. Its brochure describes it as under common control and ownership with MPM and says each firm may recommend the other; it does not mention Vaulted.
- AltStreet's enforcement tables (SEC administrative and litigation releases to October 30, 2026; FINRA to August 24, 2026) contain no action naming Vaulted, McAlvany or International Collectors.
- Not searched because the registries blocked scripted access or require a browser: NFA BASIC, NMLS Consumer Access, the Colorado Division of Securities and Attorney General, Delaware, and the ICTA member directory shown in the site footer. State courts were not searched.
Disclosure Quality
Useful and incomplete. Published: the customer agreement, fee rates as percentages of spot, the vault locations, and yearly bar counts by an independent inspection firm. Not published: the dealer's financial statements, the storage agreements, a reconciliation of vault holdings to customer allocations, the bar lists and the price references. Some site statements on audit scope, insurance and fees describe more than the documents behind them.
Custody Model
MPM holds accounts at the Royal Canadian Mint (gold, Ottawa) and HSBC Bank plc (silver, London) and allocates bars or bar sections to customers on its ledger. The agreement says allocated metal is neither an asset nor a liability of the vault or MPM and cannot be pledged or leased, and gives the customer title as a nominee. The Bureau Veritas reports describe MPM as holding title to the bars in its accounts. Customer cash is a balance with MPM in an Alpine Bank account titled Vaulted.
Regulatory Backing
The Royal Canadian Mint is a Crown corporation and, under section 5 of its Act, an agent of the Crown; AltStreet located no statement that a Crown guarantee covers client storage accounts. HSBC is a regulated UK bank. The customer is not party to either storage agreement.
Tax Treatment
Reporting
Form 1099-B, per Vaulted
Vaulted's FAQ says the dollar amount of sales is reported to the IRS on Form 1099-B, issued in January following the year of sale, and that delivery is not a taxable event, so no 1099 is produced on delivery. AltStreet attributes this to the company and has not verified its reporting.
Income Character
Gain or loss on sale; no income during the hold
Metal pays nothing while held. The FAQ says Vaulted lets investors own physical gold "with the same capital gains tax treatment as stocks". Physical gold and silver bullion are generally collectibles under section 408(m) of the Internal Revenue Code, and long-term gain on collectibles is subject to a maximum federal rate of 28% under section 1(h). Whether the agreement's forward-contract framing changes that, and what the FAQ's statement rests on, are questions for a tax adviser; a reporting form does not settle the characterization.
Limitation
AltStreet is not a tax adviser. The answer depends on the contract's legal character, the holder's residence and holding period.
Special Considerations
- Ask what the FAQ's comparison to the tax treatment of stocks is based on before relying on it.
- The FAQ says holders are not required to report the account on FinCEN Form 114 although the metal is held in Canada and the UK; that depends on how the account is characterized and is a question for an adviser.
- Section 408(m)(3) allows certain bullion in an individual retirement account only when held by the IRA trustee. Vaulted offers no IRA.
Account Suitability
Taxable
The only route offered. Keep records of each purchase, sale and maintenance deduction in metal.
Roth IRA
Not offered. Bullion in an IRA must be held by the IRA trustee under section 408(m)(3).
Traditional IRA
Not offered, for the same reason.
HSA
Not offered.
Before You Invest
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AltStreet Data Layer
What the data actually shows
The cost record is five years of site snapshots; the custody record is six bar counts over two and a half years; the contract record is two versions of the customer agreement.
About 3.6% of spot to get in and out of gold
1.8% over spot to buy and 1.8% under to sell on gold, 3.0% each way on silver, plus 0.4% or 0.6% a year, per the FAQ captured November 2, 2026.
What this means
Suited to multi-year holding. Check the app's quoted prices against spot on the day you trade.
The fee description changed twice since 2023
2021 to 2023: 1.8% including all spreads, premiums and commissions. 2024: a 0.8% premium over wholesale. From 2025: 0.8% plus a 1% spread to spot, 1.8% total.
What this means
Whether the price against spot changed or only its description cannot be told from the site. The agreement states no rate.
Allocated bar withdrawal ended in early 2026; delivery continues
June 2025 FAQ: $275 per kilo bar delivered. January 2026: serial-numbered bars not delivered out of the vault; delivery in coins and bars from US inventory.
What this means
Delivery is in replacement products at retail premiums, so the ounces received are fewer than the ounces held.
Bars counted in the dealer's vault accounts
Gold 34,944.876 oz (April 2024), 31,250.772 oz (June 2025), 26,717.481 oz (September 2026); about $83.8 million, $103.4 million and $116.3 million at COMEX closes (AltStreet reference values, market data). Silver 284,152.7 fine oz (2024), 542,555.2 oz (2025), 472,201.6 gross oz (2026).
What this means
Context for the scale of the vault accounts. Without customer liabilities or flows, the series says nothing about coverage either way.
Data as of 2026-11-02 . AltStreet review evidence layer . Public-source analysis
Full datasetDecision Fit
Investor Fit
Who this works for, who it does not, and what level of patience and complexity tolerance the platform really demands.
Small, regular buyers who want gold stored at a named institutional vault
Any dollar amount, automatic purchases and storage at the Royal Canadian Mint are real conveniences, at a known cost of about 1.8% each way plus 0.4% a year. A buyer should read the agreement's ownership and dispute terms and treat the dealer as the counterparty for prices, sales and delivery.
Buyers who want to withdraw the specific bar they were allocated
The allocated vault bar is not currently shipped; delivery comes as coins and bars from the dealer's inventory at retail premiums.
Buyers who want independent evidence that their own allocation is covered
The published counts cover the dealer's vault accounts; a bar list or customer reconciliation would have to come from the company on request.
Short-term traders of gold or silver
A round trip costs about 3.6% of spot on gold and 6.0% on silver before maintenance; exchange-traded products carry much smaller transaction costs.
Retirement accounts
Vaulted offers no IRA, and bullion in an IRA must be held by the IRA trustee under section 408(m)(3).
Tradeoffs
Key Tradeoffs
The attraction of pre-IPO access is real, but every benefit comes bundled with a corresponding liquidity, transparency, or pricing cost.
Custody
Storage agreements unpublished; counts cover the dealer's vault accounts; no bar lists.
Ownership terms
Also framed as a prepaid forward contract with nominee title, with no stated process if the dealer failed.
Fees
About 3.6% (gold) and 6.0% (silver) round trip plus 0.4% or 0.6% a year; not in the agreement; maintenance changeable on notice.
Liquidity and delivery
One buyer; delivery in replacement products at retail premiums; US addresses only.
Counterparty
No financial statements published; several names used for the operator; individual arbitration with loser-pays fees.
Avoid
Who This Is Not For
This section should be read as a filter, not an afterthought. If you need income, simplicity, or near-term access to capital, the structure is working against you.
Anyone planning to withdraw the allocated vault bar itself
The serial-numbered bar allocated in the vault is not currently shipped.
Frequent traders
About 3.6% of spot round trip on gold and 6.0% on silver.
Non-US residents who want delivery
Deliveries go to US addresses only.
Retirement savers
No IRA is offered.
Editorial View
AltStreet Perspective
The compressed version of the review: what matters, what marketing tends to obscure, and how we would frame the platform for a serious allocator.
Verdict
Vaulted is a reasonable product with clear pricing and institutional vaults, and its public documents leave a few specific questions open. The company could answer them directly: publish the bar list behind each count, have the counter reconcile it to customer allocations, describe how customer allocations are recorded at the vaults and what happens in a failure, and state which entity the customer contracts with.
Positioning
Beside Paxos's PAXG, the other allocated-gold product AltStreet covers, Vaulted offers a simpler retail purchase and Royal Canadian Mint storage, while Paxos offers a trust bank issuer and monthly attestations matched to on-chain supply. Beside WhiskyInvestDirect, another seller of a physical commodity in institutional storage, Vaulted publishes less: WhiskyInvestDirect posts a monthly client-by-client reconciliation and files audited accounts.
The Bottom Line
Gold at the Royal Canadian Mint and silver at HSBC in any amount, at about 1.8% from spot each way on gold, with delivery in replacement products and custody questions the company could answer by publishing its bar lists and a customer reconciliation.
Action
Next Steps
If you still want to engage after reading the review, these are the practical next moves that reduce avoidable mistakes.
Compare the app's buy and sell prices with a published spot price on the day you trade, and save a copy of the FAQ fee section.
Read the End User Agreement, especially Parts 1, 2, 7, 8, 13, 15, 24, 26 and 36 to 38, before funding an account.
Ask for a written delivery quote, in ounces received, before you need it.
Ask for the bar list behind the latest Bureau Veritas count and check the serial number in your app against it.
Ask how customer allocations are recorded at the Royal Canadian Mint and HSBC and what happens to customer metal if McAlvany Precious Metals fails.
Ask whether customer cash at Alpine Bank is held in a segregated or for-benefit-of account.
Ask a tax adviser how gains are taxed before relying on the FAQ's comparison with stocks.
For an allocated gold product from a trust bank, read AltStreet's Paxos review.
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Deal Intelligence →Appendix
Sources, Disclosures, and Supporting Context
The lower section is structured like a report appendix: relationship context first, adjacent reading second, and evidence last.
Report Appendix
Disclosure
Relationship and compensation context
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Report Appendix
Disclosure
Relationship and compensation context
Report Appendix
Related Resources
Adjacent platform comparisons, frameworks, and category links
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Report Appendix
Related Resources
Adjacent platform comparisons, frameworks, and category links
Further Reading
Related Resources
Adjacent frameworks and reviews that help place the platform in a broader allocation or due-diligence context.
Similar Platform Reviews
- Paxos Review
PAXG allocated gold from a national trust bank, with monthly KPMG attestations matched to on-chain supply.
- WhiskyInvestDirect Review
A physical-commodity venue that publishes a monthly client-by-client reconciliation and filed accounts.
Report Appendix
Evidence & Methodology
29 cited passages on file; sources, scope, and how the review was assembled
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Report Appendix
Evidence & Methodology
29 cited passages on file; sources, scope, and how the review was assembled
Evidence on file
29 supporting passages on file for Vaulted and its offerings from 6 source documents, 6 discrepancies flagged. Each passage records the metric it supports, the value read from the document, the page, and the verbatim text where the document has it. Terminal subscribers read the passages; open them in the terminal.
- Cited passages
- 29
- Source documents
- 6
- Analyst verified
- 0
- Discrepancies flagged
- 6
ASReview Evidence
Methodology
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.
Scope
McAlvany Precious Metals LLC and Vaulted, LLC (Colorado); the Vaulted website, app store listings, customer agreement (2023 and current) and Bureau Veritas reports (2024 to 2026); McAlvany Wealth Management's Form ADV and brochure; the Royal Canadian Mint's storage page, Act, Canadian Gold Reserves FAQ and 2025 annual report; HSBC's precious metals page; the CFTC's 2013 retail commodity interpretation; 31 CFR Part 1027.
Key Findings
- *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
Comparable Platforms
- Paxos
PAXG allocated gold issued by a national trust bank with monthly KPMG attestations reconciled to on-chain supply.
- WhiskyInvestDirect
A physical commodity in institutional storage, with a monthly client-by-client reconciliation and filed audited accounts.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
High-intent search questions answered directly, without making users hunt through the full review.
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.