Solana Weekly #112 – Show Notes
Episode:
Gold on Fast Forward – Usman & Oro Bring Bullion to Solana
Quick Episode Summary
Gold has served as money for two millennia, yet it has never been this fast or productive. Usman, CEO and co-founder of Oro, joins Thomas Bahamas to explain how Oro tokenizes fully audited bullion on Solana, delivers 3–4 percent yield through the traditional gold-leasing market, and lets users redeem as little as one gram anywhere from Dubai to Los Angeles. The discussion covers macro drivers, token mechanics, redemption logistics, and why a non-USD store of value could be the missing piece of Solana DeFi.
Timestamps & Topics
| Time | Segment |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Welcome – the market meltdown and why gold timing feels perfect |
| 03:40 | Macro gold setup – forty percent YoY gains and the path to 3 k USD/oz |
| 08:15 | Solana’s store-of-value gap and stable-coin saturation |
| 12:20 | Oro tokenization pipeline – Dubai sourcing, third-party vault audits, bankruptcy-remote trusts |
| 18:05 | Gold-leasing explained – how 3–4 percent real yield is created off-chain |
| 24:30 | Staking workflow – mint GOLD, stake for GOLD+ and compound with LP pools |
| 29:50 | One-gram redemption – retail jewelry pickup, logistics for large bars, global network goal |
| 34:45 | Comparing wrapped BTC, ETFs, and Oro’s instant redemption model |
| 39:30 | Launch status – private beta, final entity formation, upcoming fundraising round |
| 43:10 | Rapid-fire with Usman – favorite macro resources, biggest misconception about gold, best use-case he can’t wait to see |
| 47:50 | Closing thoughts – DeFi’s next super-cycle is user-driven not token-driven |
| 50:15 | Call to action and show wrap-up |
Guest Bio – Usman
- CEO and Co-Founder, Oro
- Fifth-generation gold-market insider (family business dates back more than one hundred years)
- Mission: Make bullion as liquid and programmable as stable coins
- Building the world’s largest on-chain gold redemption network
- X/Twitter: @theusmansal
Key Takeaways
1. Macro Gold Boom
Gold is up roughly forty percent year-over-year. Advisors who once recommended half-percent allocations now suggest five to ten percent. A move to three-thousand dollars an ounce would not be surprising given geopolitical uncertainty and persistent inflation.
2. Tokenization Done Right
Oro sources bullion in Dubai, London, and Singapore, stores it with independent insured custodians, and publishes monthly third-party attestations. Tokens are minted and burned against real inventory in a structure that remains solvent even if Oro disappears.
3. Real-World Yield
Gold owners traditionally pay storage fees. Oro flips that paradigm by leasing the metal to refiners and jewelers who need working capital, generating 3–4 percent yield that flows back to stakers. The result is a savings-account-style product called GOLD+.
4. Redemption Flexibility
Redemption starts at one gram—about ninety US dollars—and scales to million-dollar bars. Options include in-person pickup at partner shops, insured shipping, or swapping tokens directly for finished jewelry.
5. DeFi Utility
Users can stake GOLD for yield, provide liquidity, borrow against holdings, or simply park a portion of their portfolio in a historically stable asset without leaving Solana.
6. Solana Edge
With sub-penny fees and block times under one second, Oro enables near-instant transfers, 24/7 liquidity, and settlement speed legacy gold markets cannot match.
Highlight Quotes
“Gold is basically the original meme coin with two thousand years of culture telling you it’s valuable.” — Usman
“Solana users need something besides dollars to hide in when the memes crash. Gold might be that life raft.” — Thomas
“We are not here to copy-paste CeFi. We are here to make gold do things it’s never done.” — Usman
Resources & Further Reading
- Join the Oro wait-list: https://orogold.app
- Pyth Network: Live gold price oracle on Solana
- Mentioned DeFi protocols: Lulo, Carrot
Connect with Us
Host: Thomas Bahamas
- X/Twitter – @thomasbahamasfi
- Farcaster – solanaweeklypod
Guest: Usman
- X/Twitter – @theusmansal
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Solana Weekly provides educational content only. Always do your own research, stay hydrated, and keep stacking good decisions.
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