The primary progression currency. Spent to upgrade cards, buy cards and offers in the Shop, and create or join a Clan.
Storage is capped (historically 5,000,000). Clan donations of max-level cards now grant Gold (and Star Points) instead of card copies.
Your win condition, then the cards around it. Gold is the real bottleneck of ladder progress — spreading it across a whole collection levels nothing far enough to matter, while a maxed win condition wins games on its own.
Yes — storage has historically capped at 5,000,000. If you're anywhere near it, you're sitting on upgrades; the cap exists so you spend, not save.