This article is based on a Hypernest podcast conversation with Mark Tormey, founder of Dominion. The conversation was hosted by Alessio Zazzarini, founder of Hypernest, as part of Hypernest’s ongoing series on DeFi, RWA, and onchain financial infrastructure.

It summarizes the key ideas from the episode on tokenized silver, commodity markets, custody, proof of reserves, redemption, legal structure, and the infrastructure needed to make real-world assets usable inside DeFi.

This is for informational purposes only and should not be read as investment, legal, financial, or regulatory advice.

For tokenized commodities, the hard part is not only issuing a token.

It is making sure the token is connected to a real asset, can be verified, can be redeemed, can trade with sufficient liquidity, and can eventually function inside financial workflows.

Dominion is approaching that problem through silver.

The company is building SILV, a tokenized silver product on Solana designed to give users exposure to physical silver while making that asset more accessible, transparent, and usable in DeFi.

The conversation with Mark was not just about silver as an investment theme. It was also about the practical infrastructure that tokenized commodity products need to solve before they can become credible financial primitives.

The Core RWA Question

The core question for any tokenized commodity is not only whether the asset is onchain.

It is whether the asset can be verified, redeemed, legally understood, and used by other financial systems.

That is the lens we used for this conversation with Dominion.

Why Tokenized Silver?

Mark’s starting point is that silver is not only a precious metal. It is also an industrial metal.

Gold is often treated mainly as a store of value. Silver has a different profile. It has monetary history, but it is also used across major parts of the modern economy, including electric vehicles, solar panels, electronics, semiconductors, and AI-related infrastructure.

In the conversation, Mark argued that silver demand is being shaped by long-term forces such as electrification, energy infrastructure, AI, and broader demand for hard assets.

He also pointed to a supply issue. Much of the world’s silver is mined as a byproduct of other metals such as copper, gold, lead, and zinc. That means silver supply does not always respond directly to silver demand.

If silver demand rises, production cannot simply be increased overnight.

This demand and supply imbalance is part of Dominion’s view on why silver is an interesting asset for tokenization.

What Makes Physical Silver Difficult?

Physical silver can be difficult to access efficiently.

Users often face dealer premiums, taxes, shipping, storage costs, insurance, local market spreads, resale friction, and regional price differences.

A buyer in one country may pay a very different premium above spot than a buyer somewhere else. Selling physical silver can also be inefficient, especially if the buyer has to deal with inspection, delivery, dealer discounts, or local liquidity conditions.

Physical silver also does not easily plug into digital financial systems.

It cannot be used in a DeFi lending market. It cannot be routed through a DEX. It cannot be deposited into an onchain vault. It cannot move 24/7 across global markets.

This is the gap Dominion is trying to address.

The question is not only whether silver can be tokenized. The question is whether tokenized silver can become easier to access, easier to verify, easier to trade, and eventually useful inside DeFi.

How Dominion Is Building Tokenized Silver With SILV

Dominion is building SILV as tokenized silver on Solana.

The basic idea is simple:

1 SILV is intended to represent exposure to one troy ounce of physical silver.

But the more important part is the infrastructure around the token.

Dominion is not only trying to create a digital wrapper for silver. The goal is to make silver more usable in DeFi through custody, verification, redemption, liquidity, and future integrations.

That means thinking about:

• where the silver is held
• how users can verify the backing
• how minting and redemption work
• how liquidity is created
• how SILV can trade on Solana
• how the token may integrate with lending, vaults, and collateral markets over time
• how legal structure and regulated access may evolve

This is the difference between a passive tokenized receipt and an asset designed for financial utility.

What Is Live, And What Is Roadmap?

One important part of evaluating any RWA product is separating what exists today from what is planned.

In the podcast, Mark described several layers of Dominion’s current setup and future roadmap. The distinction matters because tokenized commodity products depend on operational execution, not only token design.

This distinction matters.

A serious RWA product should be evaluated not only by its vision, but by the execution path between current infrastructure and the full roadmap.

For Dominion, the early focus is making SILV accessible, backed, and tradable. The broader roadmap is about turning tokenized silver into a more composable DeFi asset through custody upgrades, scalable proof of reserves, redemption infrastructure, liquidity depth, legal structuring, and future integrations.

Custody And Proof Of Reserves

For any tokenized commodity, custody is one of the first questions.

Where is the physical asset?
Who holds it?
How can users know it exists?

In the podcast, Mark explained that Dominion has started with physical silver held through third-party vault arrangements, and that the longer-term plan is to move into institutional custody with Brinks as the project scales.

He also emphasized proof of reserves.

Today, Dominion provides proof-of-purchase and delivery materials so users can review evidence of the silver backing. Over time, Mark said the team wants to use proof-of-reserve infrastructure such as Chainlink, along with onchain documentation systems, to make reserve verification more scalable and transparent.

For RWA users and investors, this matters because the token is only one part of the product.

The backing needs to be visible.
The custody needs to be understood.
The reserve data needs to be trusted.

Redemption: The Path Back To Value

Redemption was one of the most important parts of the conversation.

For tokenized commodities, redemption is the path back to value.

Mark explained that Dominion plans to host minting and redemption through its website. Users will be able to see how many tokens are in supply compared with the amount of silver held.

At first, redemption is planned to be available in cash terms, through USDC. Over time, Dominion wants to support physical silver redemption as well, subject to KYC, AML checks, and regional requirements.

This distinction matters.

Physical redemption is not simple. If a holder is in one jurisdiction and the metal is stored in another, there may be legal, logistical, and compliance requirements before physical delivery can happen.

That is why redemption is one of the hardest RWA design questions.

It is not just a product button. It is an operational, legal, and compliance workflow.

Yield Design: Keeping The Silver Backing Separate From Protocol Revenue

Yield is one of the most sensitive design questions for tokenized commodities.

In the conversation, Mark made a clear distinction between lending out the physical silver and building DeFi utility around the SILV token.

Dominion does not want to generate yield by rehypothecating or lending out the underlying physical silver. The reason is simple: lending the metal itself could introduce counterparty risk and weaken the clarity of the token’s backing.

Instead, Dominion’s model focuses on keeping the physical silver in custody while allowing the onchain market around SILV to generate protocol activity.

That activity may come from trading fees, liquidity provision, lending integrations, borrowing markets, and other DeFi mechanisms over time.

This distinction is important.

There is a difference between:

lending out the physical silver
allowing the SILV token to be used in DeFi

The first can introduce direct risk to the backing asset. The second keeps the physical asset in custody while allowing the onchain representation to participate in financial markets.

For RWA products, the source of yield matters.

Users and investors need to understand where returns come from, what risks are introduced, and whether the underlying asset remains properly backed.

During the pilot phase, SILV should be understood primarily as a digital commodity token. Dominion’s longer-term yield design separates the silver-backed token from future regulated yield distribution, including SILV-y.

Legal Structure And SPV Design

The conversation also moved into legal architecture.

For tokenized commodities, legal structure is part of the product. It affects how title, custody, redemption, and recovery rights are understood, especially under stress.

Mark discussed SPV and bankruptcy-remoteness as important design goals for Dominion’s future legal architecture.

The reason is straightforward: if something goes wrong at the operating company or holding company level, token holders need clarity on how the underlying physical silver would be treated.

A dedicated structure around the physical silver could help separate the asset from wider company-level risks, but this should be understood as part of the planned architecture rather than a completed legal guarantee.

Mark also discussed Dominion’s plan to work with regulated issuers and platforms for accredited and sophisticated investors, while still building around Solana-native distribution and DeFi liquidity.

This reflects one of the core tensions in RWA.

The product needs open and programmable infrastructure, but it also needs legal and compliance structures that can support institutional participation.

For Dominion, the legal roadmap is therefore not separate from the product roadmap. It is part of what determines whether SILV can evolve from tokenized silver exposure into a more credible DeFi and institutional asset.

Liquidity And Access

Another problem Dominion is addressing is access.

Physical silver does not trade like a DeFi asset. It is fragmented by geography, dealer relationships, storage, premiums, and settlement logistics.

SILV is designed to make silver more accessible through Solana liquidity.

Mark discussed Solana’s role in the product, including low transaction costs, fast settlement, and integrations with DeFi infrastructure such as Meteora and Jupiter.

The goal is not only to issue a token.

The goal is to make tokenized silver easier to buy, sell, route, and eventually integrate into other onchain products.

For users, liquidity matters because it affects whether they can enter and exit efficiently.

For protocols, liquidity matters because it affects whether the asset can be underwritten, priced, and used in broader DeFi workflows.

DeFi Utility: Beyond Price Exposure

A silver ETF can give users exposure to silver price.

A DeFi-native silver token can potentially do more.

Mark discussed the idea of SILV becoming useful across liquidity pools, lending markets, borrowing markets, collateral systems, vault strategies, and future structured products.

This is where tokenized commodities become more interesting than simple price exposure.

The long-term question is not only:

Can users buy tokenized silver?

It is:

Can tokenized silver become a financial primitive that other protocols can build around?

That is the broader RWA usability question.

What Users And Investors Should Watch

From a user or investor perspective, Dominion is interesting because it is addressing several real bottlenecks in tokenized commodities at the same time.

It is not only focused on issuance. It is also thinking about custody, reserve verification, redemption, liquidity, DeFi utility, and legal structure.

The strongest parts of the approach are:

• the focus on silver, a commodity with both monetary and industrial demand
• the attempt to make silver accessible through Solana
• the emphasis on proof-of-purchase and reserve transparency
• the plan for USDC redemption first and physical redemption later
• the decision not to generate yield by lending out the physical silver
• the focus on liquidity and DeFi integrations
• the discussion around SPV design and regulated issuer pathways

As with any early RWA product, the next things to watch are execution across custody, redemption, legal structure, liquidity, and integrations as the product scales.

Users and investors should pay attention to:

• how custody evolves as holdings grow
• how proof-of-reserve systems are implemented
• how redemption works in practice
• what fees, premiums, and spreads apply
• how deep secondary liquidity becomes
• how the legal structure is finalized
• what jurisdictions and investor restrictions apply
• how smart contract, oracle, and Solana infrastructure risks are managed
• which DeFi integrations go live and when
• how yield is structured without weakening the physical backing

These are the questions that determine whether SILV can move from tokenized silver exposure to usable DeFi infrastructure.

What This Says About RWA

The Dominion conversation also reflects a broader shift in RWA.

The category is moving from representation to usability.

It is no longer enough to say an asset has been tokenized. The asset has to be accessible, verified, redeemable, liquid, legally understandable, and useful in financial workflows.

That applies across RWA categories:

• tokenized commodities need custody, reserve verification, and redemption
• tokenized treasuries need fund structure, NAV, compliance, and liquidity
• private credit needs underwriting, servicing, repayment flows, and default management
• tokenized equities need transfer restrictions, corporate actions, and market access
• stablecoin payment rails need settlement, compliance, and distribution

Dominion is one example of how these questions show up in practice.

Through the lens of silver, the conversation touched the same infrastructure layers that matter across the RWA market: backing, custody, verification, redemption, legal structure, liquidity, and utility.

Dominion Alpha Vault

Dominion is opening early access to SILV through its first Alpha Vault.

According to Dominion’s launch page, the first release is described as giving whitelisted users access to $35,000 of physical silver through SILV on Solana.

Alpha Vault buyers receive SILV at a 10% discount to the live silver spot price, subject to a vesting schedule. Dominion also states that the public price after the Alpha Vault will be spot × 1.05.

These Alpha Vault terms are separate from Dominion’s public pricing model after launch.

The allocation is first-come, first-served, with a hard cap of $5,000 USDC per whitelisted wallet.

Alpha Vault buyers are also eligible for a pro-rata share of the protocol’s trading fees over the first 30 days, provided they hold their SILV for the full 30-day period.

This is access to the product, not a private round or equity investment. The Alpha Vault terms are an early access community allocation and should be understood separately from Dominion’s broader launch, protocol design, and future market pricing.

Learn more: dominion.market/launch

Conclusion

Dominion is building tokenized silver as more than a digital receipt.

Through SILV, the team is trying to address several of the practical problems that sit behind tokenized commodities: access, custody, proof of reserves, redemption, liquidity, legal structure, and future DeFi utility.

For users and investors evaluating the category, the question is not simply whether silver can be brought onchain.

The more important question is whether tokenized silver can become easier to access, easier to verify, easier to redeem, and useful inside DeFi.

That is the practical side of the RWA conversation.

The next phase of RWA is not just about issuing more tokens that represent real-world assets.

It is about building the infrastructure that lets those assets function inside financial systems.

Tokenized silver is one example of that shift.

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