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This article was written by Mark Pey, Strategic Relationships
Monetary Metals’ joint venture with Turkish gold industry leader Aga One is just the first step in mobilizing the estimated 5,000 tons of gold held by Turkish households.
The partnership, announced in November 2025 but in incubation for several months prior, will bring the significant benefits of Monetary Metals’ Gold Yield Marketplace to Turkish businesses and investors alike.
The joint venture will offer a customized solution to the unique requirements of the Turkish gold industry. Turkish gold investors will enjoy the opportunity to earn a yield by financing qualified Turkish businesses (including jewelers, refiners, and mints) with their gold.
The full complement of Monetary Metals safeguards and controls, including guarantees, insurance wrappers, and RFID monitoring systems, will maintain system integrity at the high standards that have served the company and its clients successfully for almost a decade.
Mobilizing “pillow gold”
The initial target for the joint venture will be what is termed “pillow gold”. This is gold purchased by households and then taken home for storage (and metaphorically hidden under the pillow).
The program will use a network of participating jewelers (there are more than 30,000 jewelry stores across Türkiye) to verify and accept domestic gold from owners who seek a productive yield on their metal and who seek a safer, more flexible, and more liquid gold custody arrangement.
Follow-on phases will internationalize the program
In the follow-on phases, the joint venture will extend the offer internationally by connecting Turkish businesses with gold financing sourced internationally by Monetary Metals. This will represent a substantial increase in the amount of capital available to finance these businesses.
Depending upon regulatory approvals, the final phase would be to open the full global Monetary Metals precious metals fixed income marketplace to Turkish investors. This would give Turkish gold holders of all kinds the opportunity to diversify their gold metal holdings globally.
550 years of building trust
One of the premier partners for the joint venture is Darphane, the publicly-owned Turkish government mint, which was founded in 1475 by Sultan Mehmet II.
With 18 generations of building and maintaining the trust of the public, Darphane is by a large margin the most trusted institution in the Turkish gold industry.
Darphane General Manager Faruk Gözübüyük used the opportunity speaking at the Ankara Jewelers Association Conference last week, to reference the importance of introducing leasing as a financing option for the Turkish Jewelry industry.
With Darphane as custodian of the program, Aga One managing local marketing, logistics and gold dealing, major jewelers providing gold intake and benefitting from increased client foot traffic, and Monetary Metals originating, underwriting, offering, and monitoring leasing contracts, the gold landscape in Türkiye is about to experience a major shake-up.
