Wrapped Herculis Gold Coin — version comparison

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27 Sept 2026, 11:56 UTC · PaoloDiStef · 825d268 · assessments/draft/XAUH.md

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Structured data (34 changes)

FieldBeforeAfter
Risk parameters
risk_parameters.liquidation_price80—
risk_parameters.maturitynull1 year
risk_parameters.minimum_collateralnull—
Risk scores
risk_scores.market_risk12.00%12.52%
risk_scores.tail_risks.counterparty_risks[0].nameHerculis GroupHerculis Tokens S.A.
risk_scores.tail_risks.smart_contract_risks[0].nameSmart-Contract ExploitXAUH Smart-Contract Exploit
risk_scores.tail_risks.smart_contract_risks[0].compensation0.5%0.50%
risk_scores.tail_risks.governance_risks[0].nameIssuer/admin-control and custody intervention riskAdmin-Control
risk_scores.tail_risks.governance_risks[0].probabilityLowVery Low
risk_scores.tail_risks.governance_risks[0].severitySevereCritical
risk_scores.tail_risks.governance_risks[0].compensation0.5%0.50%
risk_scores.tail_risks.legal_risks[0].namen/a—
risk_scores.tail_risks.legal_risks[0].probabilityn/a—
risk_scores.tail_risks.legal_risks[0].severityn/a—
risk_scores.tail_risks.legal_risks[0].compensation0%—
risk_scores.tail_risks.liquidity_risks[0].nameSecondary Market Liquidity & Minting/Redemption Impairment—
risk_scores.tail_risks.liquidity_risks[0].probabilityLow—
risk_scores.tail_risks.liquidity_risks[0].severitySevere—
risk_scores.tail_risks.liquidity_risks[0].compensation0.5%—
risk_scores.tail_risks.contagion_risks[0].namen/a—
risk_scores.tail_risks.contagion_risks[0].probabilityNegligible—
risk_scores.tail_risks.contagion_risks[0].severityn/a—
risk_scores.tail_risks.contagion_risks[0].compensation0%—
risk_scores.tail_risks.smart_contract_risks[1].name—wXAUH Smart-Contract Exploit
risk_scores.tail_risks.smart_contract_risks[1].probability—Very Low
risk_scores.tail_risks.smart_contract_risks[1].severity—Critical
risk_scores.tail_risks.smart_contract_risks[1].compensation—0.50%
Links
links.etherscanhttps://etherscan.io/token/0xa9b17f572341219703bc951725bdb3ca756b1a65https://etherscan.io/token/0xC174B12B3195D9887e8dA7aA886EC11c13101060
links.coingeckohttps://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/herculis-gold-coin""
links.otherhttps://dexscreener.com/ethereum/0x03852AE3df6DE29ea7B9E4077cD63A3E3e14832Chttps://github.com/Frankencoin-ZCHF/Frankencoin/discussions/128
General
asset_nameHerculis Gold CoinWrapped Herculis Gold Coin
General
asset_tickerXAUHwXAUH
General
contract_address0xa9b17f572341219703bc951725bdb3ca756b1a650xC174B12B3195D9887e8dA7aA886EC11c13101060
General
assessment_date2026-09-232026-11-06

Narrative (markdown)

assessments/{draft/XAUH.md@825d268 → published/XAUH.md@c054ce0} RENAMED
@@ -1,129 +1,91 @@
1
- # Collateral Risk Assessment: Herculis Gold Coin
2
 
3
  ## Summary
4
 
5
- XAUH is a tokenized gold product issued by Herculis Tokens SA. Each XAUH token represents exposure to one gram of Swiss-stored LBMA 999.9 physical gold.
6
 
7
- The underlying RWA exposure is gold, which is a high-quality collateral asset with low expected market volatility.
8
 
9
- XAUH, however, is a tokenized-gold wrapper with a limited track record. Therefore, an initial global minting limit of ZCHF 250,000 and an interest rate of 2.5% are applied to contain the exposure and compensate FPS holders for the associated tail risks.
10
 
11
- ## Introduction
12
 
13
- XAUH is an ERC-20 token that gives holders exposure to physical gold. Herculis describes the asset as backed by Swiss-stored, insured, and audited LBMA 999.9 gold, with regular custody attestation by KPMG Switzerland. XAUH also exists on other networks, including TON and TRON. From 500 XAUH, physical redemptions are possible for KYC-ed holders at a 3% redemption fee plus applicable transportation and insurance costs.
14
 
15
- Herculis Tokens SA is incorporated in Panama as a subsidiary of Herculis Group, a Swiss Wealth Management & Asset Protection boutique founded in 2009, and aims to offer a more transparent and secure way for investors to participate in the gold market without the frictions typically associated with traditional gold investments.
16
 
17
- ## Free Float/Liquidity
18
 
 
 
19
  Classification: Sufficient
20
 
21
- XAUH currently has a highly concentrated holder distribution on Ethereum: around 86% of supply is held in a single issuer-controlled address, while roughly 9% sits in the Uniswap pool. However, Herculis plans to expand Uniswap liquidity, add Ethereum XAUH support to the existing Biconomy and BTSE listings, and integrate Ethereum XAUH with its live merchant/on-ramp integrations such as ChangeNOW, Changelly and Wert. The holder distribution is expected to improve as soon as these listings and integrations are finalised.
22
 
23
- Importantly, XAUH also has a documented primary-market minting mechanism. KYC-approved customers can request new issuance either by contributing eligible physical gold or by transferring FIAT for newly issued XAUH. The free float is therefore considered sufficient for now, and is expected to become stronger when the planned listings and integrations are finalised.
24
 
 
 
25
  ## Public Information
26
 
27
  Classification: Strong
28
 
29
- Public information is strong. XAUH has a public website, whitepaper, Ethereum token contract, CoinGecko listing, and public market data.
30
 
31
- Since the underlying is Gold, other gold markets can be used as a reference to derive the XAUH token price with applying a potential discount for the physical redemption and delivery process.
32
-
33
  ## Market Risk
34
 
35
- 99%-VaR, 96h close-to-close: 8.46%
36
 
37
- Maximum Drawdown, 96h close-to-close: 12.00%
38
 
39
- To account for ordinary gold-price volatility over 96h, the 2% challenger reward, and applying an additional haircut for liquidation costs and potential time delays, a 25% minter reserve appears appropriate.
40
-
41
  ## Tail Risks
42
 
43
- ### Counterparty Risk: Herculis Group
44
 
45
- Description: XAUH depends on Herculis as issuer, the custody of the underlying gold, and the operational process linking the token to the physical gold.
46
 
47
- Probability: Low
48
-
49
  Severity: Severe
50
 
51
  Compensation: 1.00%
52
 
53
- XAUH is a tokenized wrapper whose value depends on the issuer, custody structure, reserve documentation, redemption process, and market confidence.
54
 
55
- A failure in any of these components could impair the token relative to the underlying gold price. This risk is higher than for larger tokenized-gold products with longer operating histories, and the token could depeg more significantly from the underlying gold price in such a scenario. A 1.00% compensation is therefore assigned for issuer, custody, and redemption dependency.
56
 
57
- ### Smart Contract Risk: Smart-Contract Exploit
58
 
59
- Description: XAUH depends on an upgradeable Ethereum token contract with issuer-admin functionality.
60
-
61
- Probability: Low
62
-
63
  Severity: Critical
64
 
65
  Compensation: 0.50%
66
 
67
- The Ethereum token contract is an upgradeable proxy and includes administrative controls. Reviewed functionality indicates controls such as freeze, unfreeze, wipe of frozen addresses, pause, unpause, supply adjustment, supply-controller assignment, asset-protection role assignment, and fee-controller functions.
68
 
69
- Such controls are common for centrally issued RWA tokens, but they introduce dependency on correct administration, secure key management, and predictable issuer behaviour. A contract-level issue, malicious upgrade, compromised admin key, pause, freeze, wipe, or supply-control error could impair transferability, settlement, or liquidation proceeds. A 0.5% compensation is assigned for smart-contract risk.
70
 
71
- ### Governance Risk: Issuer/admin-control and custody intervention risk
72
 
73
- Description: XAUH is a centrally issued tokenized commodity and thus carries issuer-admin, address-blocking, and government intervention risk.
74
 
75
- Probability: Low
76
 
77
- Severity: Severe
78
 
79
- Compensation: 0%
80
 
81
- XAUH is centrally issued and backed by physical gold held in custody. The token contract includes address-level blocking controls, including functions to add or remove addresses from a blocked list, check whether an address is blocked, and destroy funds held by a blocked address.
82
 
83
- Because the underlying gold is stored physically in identifiable custody arrangements, legal, regulatory, or administrative intervention could also impair redemption, secondary-market confidence, or the economic link between XAUH and physical gold. This is captured under governance/admin-control risk for consistency with other tokenized off-chain assets. A 0.50% compensation is assigned for this residual risk.
84
 
85
- ### Legal Risk: n/a
86
 
87
- Description: No separate legal-risk premium is assigned in the current classification.
88
 
89
- Probability: n/a
90
 
91
- Severity: n/a
92
 
93
- Compensation: 0%
94
 
95
- Legal and operational considerations are mainly captured through counterparty/custody risk and governance/admin-control risk. No additional standalone legal-risk premium is assigned to avoid double-counting.
96
-
97
- ### Liquidity Risk: Secondary Market Liquidity & Minting/Redemption Impairment
98
-
99
- Description: Ethereum XAUH liquidity is limited, and the holder base currently very concentrated.
100
-
101
- Probability: Medium
102
-
103
- Severity: Severe
104
-
105
- Compensation: 1.00%
106
-
107
- The practical Ethereum liquidity source is currently the Uniswap pool as well as the direct minting/redemption path.
108
-
109
- This means that a Frankencoin liquidation could face a meaningful discount, as arbitrageurs would apply a haircut due to the limited possibility to sell the tokens on Uniswaps and additional costs for primary market redemptions. A 1.00% compensation is assigned for liquidity risk.
110
-
111
- ### Contagion Risk: n/a
112
-
113
- Description: No separate contagion-risk premium is assigned.
114
-
115
- Probability: Negligible
116
-
117
- Severity: n/a
118
-
119
- Compensation: 0%
120
-
121
- No separate contagion-risk premium is assigned as XAUH does not depend on crypto markets and has no other Defi integrations.
122
-
123
  ## Conclusion
124
 
125
- The proposed retained reserve of 25% is appropriate relative to expected market volatilty of the underlying gold exposure, and leaves a substantial buffer for liquidation execution. It should not be interpreted as protection against issuer, custody, redemption, admin-control, or liquidity tail risks. Those risks are addressed primarily through the proposed 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit and the 2.5% target interest rate.
126
-
127
- The target interest rate of 2.5% is justified by the selected risk premia: 1.00% for issuer, custody, and redemption dependency, 0.5% for smart-contract and admin-control risk, 0.5% for governance risks, and 0.5% for liquidity risk as described.
128
-
129
- The proposed 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit is the primary safeguard as long as the free float and liquidity of the token are limited. The issuer has however indicated plans of growing the Ethereum version with additional integrations and CEX listings. A higher global minting limit should then be possible.
 
1
+ # Collateral Risk Assessment: Wrapped Herculis Gold Coin
2
 
3
  ## Summary
4
 
5
+ wXAUH is a no transfer-fee wrapper of XAUH. Each wXAUH represents one XAUH, and each XAUH represents exposure to one gram of Swiss-stored LBMA 999.9 physical gold. wXAUH was created because XAUH’s fee-on-transfer mechanics are not compatible with the Frankencoin collateral flow.
6
 
7
+ The underlying exposure is high-quality and relatively low-volatility, but wXAUH remains exposed to issuer, custody, smart-contract and admin-control risk. The 25% retained reserve addresses ordinary gold-price volatility and a potential liquidation discount. The 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit and 2.5% effective interest rate are the main safeguards against these tail risks.
8
 
9
+ ## Asset Overview
10
 
11
+ wXAUH can be wrapped and unwrapped one-for-one against XAUH. The wrapper does not charge a transfer fee. A 0.02% fee applies when wrapping or unwrapping XAUH, so an auction buyer that unwraps wXAUH receives slightly less than one XAUH per token.
12
 
13
+ Herculis Tokens S.A., a Panamanian company, is the issuer and primary-market counterparty behind XAUH. It is part of Herculis Group, a Swiss wealth-management and asset-protection boutique established in 2009. The issuer’s terms describe XAUH as a contractual right against Herculis.
14
 
15
+ The gold is stored in Switzerland and KPMG has verified the gold amount in custody through various reserve reports. The latest report from 28 August 2026 recorded 18 certificates representing 15.5 kg of gold, matching the outstanding token supply.
16
 
17
+ KYC-verified holders may request physical redemption of underlying XAUH from 500 XAUH. The stated redemption fee is 3% at 500 g and 1% from 1 kg, in addition to delivery, security, insurance, customs and other third-party costs. Redemption may be delayed or refused for compliance, sanctions, legal, logistical or operational reasons.
18
 
19
+ ## Free Float
20
+
21
  Classification: Sufficient
22
 
23
+ wXAUH can be wrapped and unwrapped one-for-one against XAUH. Its relevant liquidity is therefore that of underlying XAUH.
24
 
25
+ XAUH is listed on Biconomy and BTSE, and Ethereum XAUH has Uniswap liquidity. XAUH on TON has liquidity on Ston.fi and Capital DEX. Changelly, ChangeNOW and Wert provide additional XAUH purchase integrations. A majority of XAUH supply is currently not on Ethereum, and only Herculis can bridge tokens across chains for users. XAUH also has a primary issuance route for KYC-approved customers contributing eligible physical gold or fiat. These routes provide sufficient ways for challengers to acquire XAUH and wrap it into wXAUH.
26
 
27
+ The current Ethereum market depth and the 500 XAUH physical-redemption process however limit the expected efficiency of an auction. This is addressed by the 25% retained reserve and the 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit.
28
+
29
  ## Public Information
30
 
31
  Classification: Strong
32
 
33
+ Gold has an observable and liquid underlying market. Herculis publishes token documentation, terms, a white paper and periodic information on the bullion backing. The wXAUH conversion is one-to-one with XAUH. The price source used for the partner venues is Chainlink’s XAU/USD feed converted to a per-gram XAUH price. These inputs allow challengers to estimate a likely auction value by starting from the gold price and applying a discount for redemption delay and costs.
34
 
 
 
35
  ## Market Risk
36
 
37
+ Worst 48h close-to-close drawdown observed: 12.52%
38
 
39
+ The 25% retained reserve is above the observed gold-market decline and provides an additional buffer for the challenger reward and the costs of redeeming underlying XAUH.
40
 
 
 
41
  ## Tail Risks
42
 
43
+ ### Counterparty Risk: Herculis Tokens S.A.
44
 
45
+ Likelihood: Medium
46
 
 
 
47
  Severity: Severe
48
 
49
  Compensation: 1.00%
50
 
51
+ wXAUH'w value depends on Herculis Tokens S.A. as issuer, the custody of the underlying gold, the redemption process and market confidence. A failure in any of these components could impair wXAUH relative to the underlying gold price.
52
 
53
+ ### Smart-Contract Risk: XAUH Smart-Contract Exploit
54
 
55
+ Likelihood: Very Low
56
 
 
 
 
 
57
  Severity: Critical
58
 
59
  Compensation: 0.50%
60
 
61
+ wXAUH is backed by XAUH. A defect or exploit in the XAUH token accounting or authorisation logic could allow an unauthorised transfer, mint or burn, or prevent the underlying token from settling correctly.
62
 
63
+ Such a technical failure could impair the value or recoverability of wXAUH even if the wrapper contract itself continues to function.
64
 
65
+ ### Smart-Contract Risk: wXAUH Smart-Contract Exploit
66
 
67
+ Likelihood: Very Low
68
 
69
+ Severity: Critical
70
 
71
+ Compensation: 0.50%
72
 
73
+ wXAUH is a wrapper contract that holds XAUH and issues the corresponding wrapped balance. A defect or exploit in its wrapping, unwrapping, accounting or transfer logic could break the one-to-one relationship with XAUH or prevent collateral from being transferred and auctioned.
74
 
75
+ The Frankencoin team’s mainnet-fork tests confirmed the intended transfer, approval, position, challenge, bid and forced-sale flows. The residual risk is a failure in the deployed wrapper contract or its integration path.
76
 
77
+ ### Governance Risk: Admin-Control
78
 
79
+ Likelihood: Very Low
80
 
81
+ Severity: Critical
82
 
83
+ Compensation: 0.50%
84
 
85
+ The underlying XAUH token is controlled by a 3-of-4 Safe for token ownership and supply control, while a separate 3-of-4 Safe controls proxy upgrades. The owner Safe can pause transfers, appoint an asset-protection role and replace the supply controller.
86
 
87
+ An appointed asset-protection role can freeze an address and wipe the balance of a frozen address. The proxy-admin Safe can replace the token logic entirely. These powers can make the XAUH backing held by the wrapper untransferable or destroy it on-chain, impairing wXAUH collateral.
88
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
89
  ## Conclusion
90
 
91
+ The 25% retained reserve is appropriate relative to the 12.52% worst 48h close-to-close drawdown observed for the underlying gold market and leaves a substantial buffer for the underlying XAUH execution route, redemption fees and settlement friction. The 2.50% effective interest rate compensates the Herculis Tokens S.A. counterparty risk, XAUH and wXAUH smart-contract risk, and admin-control risk. The 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit restricts the maximum withdrawable amount to 187,500 ZCHF and contains exposure to the issuer, custody and redemption risk. wXAUH’s Sufficient Free Float supports a 48 hour auction duration, and a maturity of 1 year is appropriate before reassessment.
 
 
 
 
assessments/{draft/XAUH.md@825d268 → published/XAUH.md@c054ce0} RENAMED
@@ -1,129 +1,91 @@
1
- # Collateral Risk Assessment: Herculis Gold Coin
1
+ # Collateral Risk Assessment: Wrapped Herculis Gold Coin
2
2
 
3
3
  ## Summary
4
4
 
5
- XAUH is a tokenized gold product issued by Herculis Tokens SA. Each XAUH token represents exposure to one gram of Swiss-stored LBMA 999.9 physical gold.
5
+ wXAUH is a no transfer-fee wrapper of XAUH. Each wXAUH represents one XAUH, and each XAUH represents exposure to one gram of Swiss-stored LBMA 999.9 physical gold. wXAUH was created because XAUH’s fee-on-transfer mechanics are not compatible with the Frankencoin collateral flow.
6
6
 
7
- The underlying RWA exposure is gold, which is a high-quality collateral asset with low expected market volatility.
7
+ The underlying exposure is high-quality and relatively low-volatility, but wXAUH remains exposed to issuer, custody, smart-contract and admin-control risk. The 25% retained reserve addresses ordinary gold-price volatility and a potential liquidation discount. The 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit and 2.5% effective interest rate are the main safeguards against these tail risks.
8
8
 
9
- XAUH, however, is a tokenized-gold wrapper with a limited track record. Therefore, an initial global minting limit of ZCHF 250,000 and an interest rate of 2.5% are applied to contain the exposure and compensate FPS holders for the associated tail risks.
9
+ ## Asset Overview
10
10
 
11
- ## Introduction
11
+ wXAUH can be wrapped and unwrapped one-for-one against XAUH. The wrapper does not charge a transfer fee. A 0.02% fee applies when wrapping or unwrapping XAUH, so an auction buyer that unwraps wXAUH receives slightly less than one XAUH per token.
12
12
 
13
- XAUH is an ERC-20 token that gives holders exposure to physical gold. Herculis describes the asset as backed by Swiss-stored, insured, and audited LBMA 999.9 gold, with regular custody attestation by KPMG Switzerland. XAUH also exists on other networks, including TON and TRON. From 500 XAUH, physical redemptions are possible for KYC-ed holders at a 3% redemption fee plus applicable transportation and insurance costs.
13
+ Herculis Tokens S.A., a Panamanian company, is the issuer and primary-market counterparty behind XAUH. It is part of Herculis Group, a Swiss wealth-management and asset-protection boutique established in 2009. The issuer’s terms describe XAUH as a contractual right against Herculis.
14
14
 
15
- Herculis Tokens SA is incorporated in Panama as a subsidiary of Herculis Group, a Swiss Wealth Management & Asset Protection boutique founded in 2009, and aims to offer a more transparent and secure way for investors to participate in the gold market without the frictions typically associated with traditional gold investments.
15
+ The gold is stored in Switzerland and KPMG has verified the gold amount in custody through various reserve reports. The latest report from 28 August 2026 recorded 18 certificates representing 15.5 kg of gold, matching the outstanding token supply.
16
16
 
17
- ## Free Float/Liquidity
17
+ KYC-verified holders may request physical redemption of underlying XAUH from 500 XAUH. The stated redemption fee is 3% at 500 g and 1% from 1 kg, in addition to delivery, security, insurance, customs and other third-party costs. Redemption may be delayed or refused for compliance, sanctions, legal, logistical or operational reasons.
18
18
 
19
+ ## Free Float
20
+
19
21
  Classification: Sufficient
20
22
 
21
- XAUH currently has a highly concentrated holder distribution on Ethereum: around 86% of supply is held in a single issuer-controlled address, while roughly 9% sits in the Uniswap pool. However, Herculis plans to expand Uniswap liquidity, add Ethereum XAUH support to the existing Biconomy and BTSE listings, and integrate Ethereum XAUH with its live merchant/on-ramp integrations such as ChangeNOW, Changelly and Wert. The holder distribution is expected to improve as soon as these listings and integrations are finalised.
23
+ wXAUH can be wrapped and unwrapped one-for-one against XAUH. Its relevant liquidity is therefore that of underlying XAUH.
22
24
 
23
- Importantly, XAUH also has a documented primary-market minting mechanism. KYC-approved customers can request new issuance either by contributing eligible physical gold or by transferring FIAT for newly issued XAUH. The free float is therefore considered sufficient for now, and is expected to become stronger when the planned listings and integrations are finalised.
25
+ XAUH is listed on Biconomy and BTSE, and Ethereum XAUH has Uniswap liquidity. XAUH on TON has liquidity on Ston.fi and Capital DEX. Changelly, ChangeNOW and Wert provide additional XAUH purchase integrations. A majority of XAUH supply is currently not on Ethereum, and only Herculis can bridge tokens across chains for users. XAUH also has a primary issuance route for KYC-approved customers contributing eligible physical gold or fiat. These routes provide sufficient ways for challengers to acquire XAUH and wrap it into wXAUH.
24
26
 
27
+ The current Ethereum market depth and the 500 XAUH physical-redemption process however limit the expected efficiency of an auction. This is addressed by the 25% retained reserve and the 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit.
28
+
25
29
  ## Public Information
26
30
 
27
31
  Classification: Strong
28
32
 
29
- Public information is strong. XAUH has a public website, whitepaper, Ethereum token contract, CoinGecko listing, and public market data.
33
+ Gold has an observable and liquid underlying market. Herculis publishes token documentation, terms, a white paper and periodic information on the bullion backing. The wXAUH conversion is one-to-one with XAUH. The price source used for the partner venues is Chainlink’s XAU/USD feed converted to a per-gram XAUH price. These inputs allow challengers to estimate a likely auction value by starting from the gold price and applying a discount for redemption delay and costs.
30
34
 
31
- Since the underlying is Gold, other gold markets can be used as a reference to derive the XAUH token price with applying a potential discount for the physical redemption and delivery process.
32
-
33
35
  ## Market Risk
34
36
 
35
- 99%-VaR, 96h close-to-close: 8.46%
37
+ Worst 48h close-to-close drawdown observed: 12.52%
36
38
 
37
- Maximum Drawdown, 96h close-to-close: 12.00%
39
+ The 25% retained reserve is above the observed gold-market decline and provides an additional buffer for the challenger reward and the costs of redeeming underlying XAUH.
38
40
 
39
- To account for ordinary gold-price volatility over 96h, the 2% challenger reward, and applying an additional haircut for liquidation costs and potential time delays, a 25% minter reserve appears appropriate.
40
-
41
41
  ## Tail Risks
42
42
 
43
- ### Counterparty Risk: Herculis Group
43
+ ### Counterparty Risk: Herculis Tokens S.A.
44
44
 
45
- Description: XAUH depends on Herculis as issuer, the custody of the underlying gold, and the operational process linking the token to the physical gold.
45
+ Likelihood: Medium
46
46
 
47
- Probability: Low
48
-
49
47
  Severity: Severe
50
48
 
51
49
  Compensation: 1.00%
52
50
 
53
- XAUH is a tokenized wrapper whose value depends on the issuer, custody structure, reserve documentation, redemption process, and market confidence.
51
+ wXAUH'w value depends on Herculis Tokens S.A. as issuer, the custody of the underlying gold, the redemption process and market confidence. A failure in any of these components could impair wXAUH relative to the underlying gold price.
54
52
 
55
- A failure in any of these components could impair the token relative to the underlying gold price. This risk is higher than for larger tokenized-gold products with longer operating histories, and the token could depeg more significantly from the underlying gold price in such a scenario. A 1.00% compensation is therefore assigned for issuer, custody, and redemption dependency.
53
+ ### Smart-Contract Risk: XAUH Smart-Contract Exploit
56
54
 
57
- ### Smart Contract Risk: Smart-Contract Exploit
55
+ Likelihood: Very Low
58
56
 
59
- Description: XAUH depends on an upgradeable Ethereum token contract with issuer-admin functionality.
60
-
61
- Probability: Low
62
-
63
57
  Severity: Critical
64
58
 
65
59
  Compensation: 0.50%
66
60
 
67
- The Ethereum token contract is an upgradeable proxy and includes administrative controls. Reviewed functionality indicates controls such as freeze, unfreeze, wipe of frozen addresses, pause, unpause, supply adjustment, supply-controller assignment, asset-protection role assignment, and fee-controller functions.
61
+ wXAUH is backed by XAUH. A defect or exploit in the XAUH token accounting or authorisation logic could allow an unauthorised transfer, mint or burn, or prevent the underlying token from settling correctly.
68
62
 
69
- Such controls are common for centrally issued RWA tokens, but they introduce dependency on correct administration, secure key management, and predictable issuer behaviour. A contract-level issue, malicious upgrade, compromised admin key, pause, freeze, wipe, or supply-control error could impair transferability, settlement, or liquidation proceeds. A 0.5% compensation is assigned for smart-contract risk.
63
+ Such a technical failure could impair the value or recoverability of wXAUH even if the wrapper contract itself continues to function.
70
64
 
71
- ### Governance Risk: Issuer/admin-control and custody intervention risk
65
+ ### Smart-Contract Risk: wXAUH Smart-Contract Exploit
72
66
 
73
- Description: XAUH is a centrally issued tokenized commodity and thus carries issuer-admin, address-blocking, and government intervention risk.
67
+ Likelihood: Very Low
74
68
 
75
- Probability: Low
69
+ Severity: Critical
76
70
 
77
- Severity: Severe
71
+ Compensation: 0.50%
78
72
 
79
- Compensation: 0%
73
+ wXAUH is a wrapper contract that holds XAUH and issues the corresponding wrapped balance. A defect or exploit in its wrapping, unwrapping, accounting or transfer logic could break the one-to-one relationship with XAUH or prevent collateral from being transferred and auctioned.
80
74
 
81
- XAUH is centrally issued and backed by physical gold held in custody. The token contract includes address-level blocking controls, including functions to add or remove addresses from a blocked list, check whether an address is blocked, and destroy funds held by a blocked address.
75
+ The Frankencoin team’s mainnet-fork tests confirmed the intended transfer, approval, position, challenge, bid and forced-sale flows. The residual risk is a failure in the deployed wrapper contract or its integration path.
82
76
 
83
- Because the underlying gold is stored physically in identifiable custody arrangements, legal, regulatory, or administrative intervention could also impair redemption, secondary-market confidence, or the economic link between XAUH and physical gold. This is captured under governance/admin-control risk for consistency with other tokenized off-chain assets. A 0.50% compensation is assigned for this residual risk.
77
+ ### Governance Risk: Admin-Control
84
78
 
85
- ### Legal Risk: n/a
79
+ Likelihood: Very Low
86
80
 
87
- Description: No separate legal-risk premium is assigned in the current classification.
81
+ Severity: Critical
88
82
 
89
- Probability: n/a
83
+ Compensation: 0.50%
90
84
 
91
- Severity: n/a
85
+ The underlying XAUH token is controlled by a 3-of-4 Safe for token ownership and supply control, while a separate 3-of-4 Safe controls proxy upgrades. The owner Safe can pause transfers, appoint an asset-protection role and replace the supply controller.
92
86
 
93
- Compensation: 0%
87
+ An appointed asset-protection role can freeze an address and wipe the balance of a frozen address. The proxy-admin Safe can replace the token logic entirely. These powers can make the XAUH backing held by the wrapper untransferable or destroy it on-chain, impairing wXAUH collateral.
94
88
 
95
- Legal and operational considerations are mainly captured through counterparty/custody risk and governance/admin-control risk. No additional standalone legal-risk premium is assigned to avoid double-counting.
96
-
97
- ### Liquidity Risk: Secondary Market Liquidity & Minting/Redemption Impairment
98
-
99
- Description: Ethereum XAUH liquidity is limited, and the holder base currently very concentrated.
100
-
101
- Probability: Medium
102
-
103
- Severity: Severe
104
-
105
- Compensation: 1.00%
106
-
107
- The practical Ethereum liquidity source is currently the Uniswap pool as well as the direct minting/redemption path.
108
-
109
- This means that a Frankencoin liquidation could face a meaningful discount, as arbitrageurs would apply a haircut due to the limited possibility to sell the tokens on Uniswaps and additional costs for primary market redemptions. A 1.00% compensation is assigned for liquidity risk.
110
-
111
- ### Contagion Risk: n/a
112
-
113
- Description: No separate contagion-risk premium is assigned.
114
-
115
- Probability: Negligible
116
-
117
- Severity: n/a
118
-
119
- Compensation: 0%
120
-
121
- No separate contagion-risk premium is assigned as XAUH does not depend on crypto markets and has no other Defi integrations.
122
-
123
89
  ## Conclusion
124
90
 
125
- The proposed retained reserve of 25% is appropriate relative to expected market volatilty of the underlying gold exposure, and leaves a substantial buffer for liquidation execution. It should not be interpreted as protection against issuer, custody, redemption, admin-control, or liquidity tail risks. Those risks are addressed primarily through the proposed 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit and the 2.5% target interest rate.
126
-
127
- The target interest rate of 2.5% is justified by the selected risk premia: 1.00% for issuer, custody, and redemption dependency, 0.5% for smart-contract and admin-control risk, 0.5% for governance risks, and 0.5% for liquidity risk as described.
128
-
129
- The proposed 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit is the primary safeguard as long as the free float and liquidity of the token are limited. The issuer has however indicated plans of growing the Ethereum version with additional integrations and CEX listings. A higher global minting limit should then be possible.
91
+ The 25% retained reserve is appropriate relative to the 12.52% worst 48h close-to-close drawdown observed for the underlying gold market and leaves a substantial buffer for the underlying XAUH execution route, redemption fees and settlement friction. The 2.50% effective interest rate compensates the Herculis Tokens S.A. counterparty risk, XAUH and wXAUH smart-contract risk, and admin-control risk. The 250,000 ZCHF global minting limit restricts the maximum withdrawable amount to 187,500 ZCHF and contains exposure to the issuer, custody and redemption risk. wXAUH’s Sufficient Free Float supports a 48 hour auction duration, and a maturity of 1 year is appropriate before reassessment.