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It holds physical gold bars in a vault and sells shares that track the price of gold.
VanEck Merk Gold Trust is one of the simplest businesses you will ever come across. It does not mine gold, sell jewelry, or run any stores. It buys large gold bars, locks them in a secure vault, and sells shares to investors who want to own gold without stuffing coins under a mattress. When you buy a share, you own a tiny slice of that vault's gold. The trust charges a small annual fee, currently about 0.25% of the gold it holds, and that fee is the only real way it makes money. The fee is paid by shareholders slowly over time, taken out by selling a sliver of the trust's gold. So the trust's revenue rises and falls mostly with the price of gold and the amount of gold it holds.
Think of it as a giant, professionally guarded safety deposit box that you can buy a key to. The trust's job is boring on purpose. It stores gold, gets an independent auditor to confirm the bars are real, and publishes how much gold backs each share. Shares trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker OUNZ, so investors can buy and sell them during the day just like a stock. One feature that separates it from most rivals: shareholders can, if they want, redeem their shares for actual physical gold coins instead of just cash. That appeal has helped it gather roughly $1.9 billion in assets.
The trust was launched in 2014 by VanEck, a well-known investment manager, and gold entrepreneur Axel Merk. It does not pay dividends or buy back shares, because it holds gold rather than operating a business. Its main risk is simple: if gold prices fall, the trust's value falls with them, and if investors lose interest in gold, they sell shares and the trust shrinks. For a curious reader, the whole idea boils down to one question: do you want to own gold, and if so, would you rather hold bars in a vault or a paper claim on them?
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026