E-gold

Definition
E-gold was a digital gold currency operated by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. (G&SR) under E-gold Ltd. It allowed users to open an account on their web site denominated in grams of gold (or other precious metals) and the ability to make instant transfers of value to other E-gold accounts. The company was founded in 1996 and had grown to five million accounts by 2009, when transfers were suspended due to legal issues.

At its peak in 2006, E-gold was processing more than US$2 billion worth of precious metals transactions per year, on a monetary base of only USD $71 million worth of gold (~3.5 metric tonnes), indicating a high monetary turnover (velocity) of about 28 times per year.