SPDR Gold Trust is a New York grantor trust structured to hold allocated gold bullion and issue/redeem shares exclusively in exchange for physical gold. Its balance sheet is structurally simple: total assets at March 31, 2026 were $155.2B, consisting almost entirely of Investment in Gold at fair value ($155.0B, Level 1 per ASC 820 using LBMA Gold Price PM), plus a gold receivable of $169.3M representing unsettled creation orders. Total liabilities were $56.8M, solely the accrued Sponsor fee payable (0.40% annual rate on daily NAV). Net assets were $155.1B. Under a liquidation lens, the Trust's recovery posture is straightforwardly positive and essentially equivalent to NAV: the sole asset is allocated physical gold bullion held by HSBC Bank plc and JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. as custodians, 100% in good delivery bar form. Under the standard liquidation haircut framework, gold bullion is a Level 1 liquid commodity with deep global markets; a practitioner applying even a modest haircut (say 2-5% for forced-sale conditions) to $155.0B of gold yields recovery well in excess of the $56.8M liability stack. Effective recovery to equity approaches par NAV, which is atypical for most going concerns but entirely expected for a passthrough physical commodity trust with no debt, no leases, no pension, no intangibles, and no contingent liabilities beyond indemnification obligations that are unquantified and have never been triggered. Compared to the prior quarter (December 31, 2025), net assets increased from $148.2B to $155.1B, driven by gold price appreciation ($4,608/oz end-of-period vs. $4,308/oz prior quarter-end) partially offset by net redemptions. Six-month creation volume was $38.2B vs. redemptions of $33.3B, leaving a net creation inflow of $4.9B in value terms. Shares outstanding declined QoQ from 374.2M to 366.4M as Q2 FY2026 saw 39.0M shares created vs. 46.8M redeemed. The cost basis of gold held was $96.2B against fair value of $155.0B, implying $58.8B of unrealized appreciation embedded in the trust — this appreciation is fully pass-through to shareholders and does not affect the liability stack. The only liability is the Sponsor fee payable of $56.8M, which is de minimis relative to asset size (0.04% of assets). No debt, no operating leases, no deferred revenue, no pension. The indemnification obligations disclosed in Note 5 are unquantified and not separately XBRL-tagged; the Trust has not separately disclosed any pending claims. Filing does not separately tag the cost basis of gold in a standalone XBRL element; it is disclosed in MD&A narrative only.
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