ISHARES GOLD TRUST (IAU)

The iShares Gold Trust is a grantor trust formed under New York law on January 21, 2005, whose purpose is to own gold transferred to it in exchange for shares. Each share represents a fractional undivided beneficial interest in the Trust's net assets, which consist primarily of physical gold held by its custodian. The Trust seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of gold, before payment of its expenses and liabilities, and is meant to give investors a simple, cost-effective alternative to buying, storing and insuring physical gold. It is not actively managed, does not try to profit from or offset changes in the gold price, and does not lend its gold. Its activities are limited to issuing Baskets in exchange for gold, selling gold to cover the Sponsor's fees and other expenses and liabilities, and delivering gold for redeemed Baskets. The Trust has no officers, directors or employees.

The Trust has a single product: its shares, listed on NYSE Arca under the ticker IAU. Shares are created and redeemed only in Baskets of 50,000 shares. Net asset value rose from about $32.96 billion at December 31, 2024 to about $68.38 billion at December 31, 2025, and shares outstanding rose from 668,650,000 to 842,850,000. The Sponsor's fee accrues daily at an annualized 0.25% of net asset value, and the Sponsor earned $124,023,218 for 2025. In return, the Sponsor assumes the Trustee's and Custodian's fees, listing and SEC registration fees, audit fees, printing and mailing costs, and up to $500,000 per year in legal fees.

Retail and other investors buy and sell shares through ordinary brokerage accounts, including margin accounts. Only registered broker-dealers that have agreements with the Sponsor and the Trustee, called Authorized Participants, can deposit gold for new Baskets or redeem them. The current Authorized Participants are ABN AMRO Clearing USA, Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co., HSBC Securities (USA), J.P. Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing, Morgan Stanley & Co., Scotia Capital (USA), SG Americas Securities, UBS Securities and Virtu Americas. Shares may trade above or below net asset value, and the Sponsor believes creation and redemption arbitrage helps limit such gaps. The Trust is not a registered investment company or a commodity pool, so holders do not have the protections of the Investment Company Act or the Commodity Exchange Act.

The Sponsor is iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and consolidated subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. The Bank of New York Mellon is the Trustee, and JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., London Branch is the Custodian. The Custodian holds the gold in New York, London and potentially other locations, and may use sub-custodians. Gold is held in allocated form, not unallocated, and must be LBMA Good Delivery bars from qualifying refiners. The Custodian carries insurance for its custodial obligations, but it benefits the Custodian rather than the Trust. Bureau Veritas inspected the vaults on December 5, 2025. Each day the Trustee values the gold at the LBMA Gold Price and computes net asset value after 4:00 p.m. New York time.