Kinesis Silver (KAG) is a digital silver currency, each token backed one-to-one by a troy ounce of allocated physical silver in insured, independently audited vaults. Issued by Kinesis on Stellar, it is redeemable for bullion and pays a small variable monthly yield from a share of platform transaction-fee revenue. KAG scores 97/100 (Tier 1) on the RWTS Trust Score, joint-highest in our corpus, on the strength of full physical backing and audits. As with physical silver, the yield is modest and the return is driven mainly by the metal price.
- Issuer / protocol
- Kinesis Money
- Jurisdiction
- Cayman IslandsCIMA-registered VASP
- Backing
- 1 troy oz silver (allocated, insured, audited)
- Redemption / lock-up
- None
- Audit & proof of reserves
- Independently audited
- Availability
- Global
- Chain
- Stellar
- Tier
- Tier 1 — Physically-Backed RWA
- Contract
- 0x56Ba…1B8e
Scored on the published RWTS methodology (v1.1), reviewed quarterly and on material events. Ratings are independent and never pay-influenced.
Source: Inspectorate International audit. Point-in-time disclosure, not a live feed; weights move with issuance and policy.
Silver moves with gold (correlation typically 0.7-0.85 over 12-month windows) but with higher beta — silver is structurally more volatile because the market is ~10x smaller by dollar value. Industrial demand (solar PV in particular, plus EVs and electronics) accounts for ~55% of annual silver consumption versus <10% for gold, so silver also responds to global manufacturing PMIs and the photovoltaic build-out cycle. The gold/silver ratio (typically 50-90, currently elevated) is a contrarian indicator — extreme readings tend to mean-revert.
Silver has lagged gold for most of the post-2022 monetary regime shift, leaving the gold/silver ratio elevated relative to its long-run mean. Two structural tailwinds are building: (1) physical supply has been in deficit for the fourth consecutive year per the Silver Institute, with mine supply roughly flat and industrial demand growing 4-6% annually; (2) solar PV demand is the largest single source of marginal demand growth and tracks the global energy transition spend cycle. The catch-up trade requires a catalyst — usually that comes from a gold breakout that pulls silver via the ratio, or a visible inventory squeeze on COMEX.
- ›Silver Institute annual supply/demand report (issued April each year)
- ›Solar PV install run-rate (BloombergNEF quarterly)
- ›COMEX silver inventory drawdowns — registered + eligible
- ›Gold/silver ratio — sub-70 historically marks acceleration
- ›Manufacturing PMIs in China, US, EU (industrial demand barometer)
- ×Solar PV thrifting tech (less silver per cell) materially adopted at scale
- ×Recession that drops industrial demand faster than mine supply contracts
- ×Gold breaking down — silver almost never goes up while gold is falling
Editorial macro context · refreshed each methodology cycle · not investment advice
Calculations are indicative. Actual yields may vary.
Price data from CoinGecko. Not financial advice.
Current yield of 0.08% sits at 3% of the observed range. There may be room for rates to improve.
Projections assume constant APY of 0.08%. Actual returns may vary. Not financial advice.
Allocated physical silver mirroring KAU model.
Methodology v1.0 · independent rating · published rubric · no issuer payments
1 troy oz allocated physical investment-grade silver per token, held in insured audited vaults.
Bureau Veritas bi-annual physical inspection results published on-chain via Chainlink Proof of Reserves feed (data.chain.link/feeds/ethereum/mainnet/kag-por); independent attestation + on-chain verification.
Direct 1 troy oz physical silver redemption via Kinesis exchange; minimum threshold accessible to retail.
Annual financial audit of Kinesis entity; Stellar/Ethereum token contracts audited; no formal public bug bounty.
Kinesis exchange CIMA-regulated; UK SCR21 approved promoter; clear multi-jurisdictional structure.
Live since 2018 alongside KAU, 7+ years stable operation, no material incidents.
PHYSICAL_RWA_CHAINLINK_POR_BIANNUALChainlink PoR feed updates bi-annually with Bureau Veritas inspection results; physical commodity assets cannot have continuous on-chain PoR by structure.
Caveats document operational realities that don't change the dimensional score but shape practical use.
Beyond KAG's own score, two structural questions matter: what is it built on, and what has broken before in this part of the market. A high score in isolation can still carry hidden, shared exposure.
What this and similar assets are built on, and where contagion could spread.
The depegs, defaults, and exploits that inform the Track Record dimension.
Liquidity read: TVL of $279.40M indicates healthy on-chain liquidity. Lock-up: None.