Risk overview
Aureus positions are not risk-free, guaranteed or principal-protected. This includes PT: it behaves like a zero-coupon instrument but is not legally a bond, and it provides a predictable rate only under the assumptions described below.
Underlying asset risk
Section titled “Underlying asset risk”Every Aureus position inherits the risks of the yield-bearing gold it is built on:
- Issuer and custody risk of the tokenized gold and of the yield-bearing wrapper.
- Strategy risk. The source of yield may underperform, pause or fail.
- Gold price risk. Positions remain exposed to the price of gold.
- Depeg or redemption risk if the wrapper cannot be redeemed at its expected value.
Protocol risk
Section titled “Protocol risk”- Smart-contract risk. Bugs or exploits in Aureus contracts or in the contracts it depends on.
- Settlement risk. Outcomes at maturity depend on settlement rules and on the underlying behaving as expected.
- Oracle and data risk where external data is used.
Market risk
Section titled “Market risk”- Rate risk. PT and YT prices move as implied rates change. Selling before maturity can realise a loss.
- Liquidity risk. Markets may be thin, making it costly or impossible to exit at a desired price.
- YT decay. YT value trends toward zero as maturity approaches. A YT buyer can lose up to the full amount paid if gold yield comes in lower than expected.
- Liquidity provider risk. LPs take on the price risk of the assets in the pool and may end up holding more of the asset that fell in value. Trading fees may not offset it.
- Bootstrap liquidity. Testnet pools are seeded for price discovery and are not deep production liquidity.
Testnet status
Section titled “Testnet status”Aureus is in development. Roadmap items, including RFQ, advanced yield strategies, incentives and any token, are not current functionality. Testnet assets have no monetary value, and testnet behaviour may differ from any future mainnet deployment. Nothing in these docs is financial advice.