Developing a Real-Time Gold Trading App for a UAE-based Fintech Startup

Success Story

About the Client

O Gold is a UAE-based fintech and e-commerce platform transforming how people buy, invest in, and use precious metals. As the region’s first gold lifestyle super app, it enables users to purchase gold, silver, and other metals digitally with secure, insured delivery. Since launch, O Gold has rapidly grown its community, serving over 800,000 users across the region.

Country:

UAE

Industry:

E-commerce

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Business Situation & Requirements

O Gold initially operated through its website and physical touchpoints across the UAE, enabling customers to purchase gold and silver with secure delivery. While this model supported early traction, it limited real-time engagement, restricted accessibility for mobile-first users, and constrained the company’s ability to offer features such as live price tracking, instant transactions, portfolio management, and seamless digital experiences expected in today’s fintech-driven market.

To unlock its next phase of growth, O Gold set out to build a comprehensive mobile-first platform that would transform gold from a traditional investment into a digitally accessible, everyday asset. The envisioned application needed to support real-time market pricing integrations, fractional ownership starting from small ticket sizes, secure digital wallets, seamless buy/sell transactions, and insured delivery logistics, all within a highly intuitive interface.

Additionally, given the regulatory sensitivity of precious metals trading, the solution required robust data security, encrypted transactions, compliance adherence, and scalable cloud architecture. O Gold partnered with Unthinkable for its proven expertise in building secure, high-performance fintech applications capable of balancing innovation, compliance, and scalability in complex digital trading environments.

Key Requirements:

Conduct a comprehensive discovery phase to define business objectives, user personas, regulatory considerations, and competitive positioning. Establish the end-to-end product roadmap, outline the development lifecycle, and recommend a scalable technology stack aligned with real-time trading requirements.
Design and develop a comprehensive admin portal to efficiently manage users, product catalogs, live pricing configurations, orders, transactions, reporting, and compliance workflows.
Create a highly intuitive, mobile-first UI/UX delivering consistent cross-device experiences, with a strong focus on seamless trading, real-time portfolio visibility, transparent pricing, and frictionless navigation for both new and experienced users.
Build a resilient and scalable backend infrastructure capable of handling real-time price updates, high transaction throughput, live trading activities, wallet management, and portfolio tracking with minimal latency.
Architect a secure and optimized database system to store and process large volumes of user data, trade records, and product information while ensuring data accuracy, integrity, consistency, and audit readiness.
Ensure end-to-end compliance with UAE gold and silver trading regulations by implementing frameworks aligned with UAE Federal Law, DMCC regulations, AML/KYC guidelines, VAT compliance, regulatory reporting, audit trails, and enterprise-grade data security standards.

The Solution

The project began with a comprehensive product discovery phase, during which Unthinkable collaborated closely with O Gold’s stakeholders to define business objectives, target user segments, and critical functional requirements. A key focus during this phase was enabling real-time gold and silver pricing, seamless trading workflows, and regulatory compliance, ensuring the platform could support dynamic market conditions and high-frequency transactions. This process helped align the overall vision, establish a clear scope, and prioritize features that deliver tangible value to end users.

Following the discovery, the business analysis team conducted in-depth market and competitor research to understand user expectations, pricing transparency needs, and emerging trends in digital precious-metal trading. Based on these insights, software architects designed a secure, scalable system architecture capable of integrating real-time pricing feeds and trading APIs, ensuring instant price updates, accurate valuation, and low-latency trade execution. Optimized user journeys and workflows were defined to support buying, selling, and portfolio tracking with minimal friction.

The mobile application was developed using React Native to deliver a consistent, high-performance experience across iOS and Android devices. A Node.js–based backend architecture was implemented to efficiently manage real-time data flows, trading operations, transaction processing, and portfolio calculations. The backend seamlessly integrated with external pricing and trading APIs, enabling live market rates, instant value updates, and reliable execution of gold and silver trades, while maintaining data integrity, security, and compliance with regional trading standards.

Key Features Developed

Wallet Balance & Deposit

Users can securely add funds to their digital wallet and view real-time wallet balances along with a detailed transaction history. The feature ensures complete transparency across deposits, withdrawals, and trading activities, enabling users to seamlessly prepare for gold and silver purchases within a secure, regulated environment.

Portfolio Management

The portfolio module provides a consolidated view of users’ gold and silver holdings with real-time valuation based on live market prices. Users can monitor asset performance, track historical trends, and analyze gains or losses, empowering informed investment decisions through clear visibility and intuitive analytics.

Gold & Silver Gifting

The gifting functionality enables users to digitally send gold or silver to friends and family. Through a simple, guided flow, users can select the metal type, enter the amount, and provide recipient details, making precious metal gifting secure, instant, and accessible.

Buy, Sell & Redeem

Users can buy and sell gold and silver directly within the app using real-time market pricing. The platform supports secure transactions and allows redemption of physical gold and silver through authorized outlets, bridging digital ownership with tangible asset delivery.

Notification System

A real-time notification system keeps users informed about transaction updates, order status changes, price movements, portfolio performance, and important compliance alerts, ensuring timely awareness and enhanced trading confidence.

Gold-Backed Card & Rewards

Users can access a gold-backed payment card that enables them to spend their gold balance seamlessly for everyday transactions. The card converts gold holdings into spendable value in real time, bridging investment and lifestyle usage. Integrated reward or loyalty mechanisms further incentivize transactions, allowing users to earn benefits while leveraging their precious metal portfolio.

Admin Panel Features

Order Management

Administrators can monitor and manage the entire order lifecycle, from placement to fulfillment and redemption. Real-time status tracking ensures operational efficiency, faster processing, and improved customer support.

Transactions

The admin panel provides comprehensive visibility into all user transactions, including deposits, trades, and withdrawals. This centralized system supports financial transparency, reconciliation, reporting, and efficient dispute resolution.

KYC Verification and Approval

The KYC module enables administrators to review, verify, and approve user-submitted documents in compliance with regulatory requirements. This ensures secure onboarding, fraud prevention, and adherence to AML and UAE regulatory standards.

Product Management

Administrators can add, update, and manage gold and silver products, pricing configurations, and inventory availability. The feature ensures accurate product listings, real-time pricing alignment, and seamless catalog management across the platform.

The Impact

The trading application transformed O Gold’s business by expanding operations beyond its website and physical channels into a unified mobile platform, driving exponential digital adoption. Since launch, the platform has grown to serve over 800,000 users, with access to more than 8,000 international brands through integrated rewards and marketplace features, significantly boosting engagement. Real-time trading, digital wallets, and portfolio management increased repeat usage and strengthened customer trust with transparent pricing and live market data.

The robust admin panel streamlined order management, transaction tracking, and compliance workflows, reducing administrative overhead and improving operational efficiency. Overall, the application expanded O Gold’s market reach, strengthened its digital presence, and positioned the company as a technology-driven leader in the UAE’s precious metals trading landscape, enhancing competitiveness and supporting continued growth across the region.

trading application transformed for O Gold’s business

800,000+

Users Onboarded

8,000+

Global Brands Integrated

70,000+

Transactions Completed

Related Case Studies

Developing a Real-Time Gold Trading App for a UAE-based Fintech Startup

About the Client

Country:

Industry:

Business Situation & Requirements

The Solution

Key Features Developed

Admin Panel Features

The Impact

800,000+

8,000+

70,000+

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Delaware, USA

London, UK

Dubai, UAE

Gurugram, India

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