Which Golden Chest is this?
This is the large golden chest reached after offering the corresponding items at the water, stone, moon and sun statues and lowering the water. Identify the surrounding puzzle before comparing it with an ordinary loot chest.
An empty chest can be intentional
The developer confirmed that the reported empty Golden Chest was working as intended. If you have just reached this chest and it contains nothing, the empty interior alone is not a reason to restart your save or assume another player took the reward.
Keep the distinction specific to this puzzle chest. It does not tell you what should be inside every other container in the dungeon.