Tokenized Gold Market Tops $2.5B as the Precious Metal Nears Record Highs

As the price of gold is on the cusp of breaking its April peak, the market size of crypto tokens backed by the precious metal has already surged to fresh all-time highs. The overall market capitalization of tokenized gold topped $2.57 billion, CoinGecko data shows, as the two leading offerings, Tether's XAUT and Paxos' PAXG tokens, saw sizable inflows recently. Both tokens's are designed to track the price of gold and are backed by physical bars held in vaults. XAUT (XAUT), issued by the firm that's behind the USDT stablecoin, saw a $437 million jump in its supply to a record $1.3 billion, per CoinGecko. Tether's Treasury minted 129,000 tokens in early August on the Ethereum network, blockchain data by Etherscan shows. PAXG (PAXG), the gold-backed token of U.S.-based stablecoin firm Paxos, swelled to a record market size of $983 million, DefiLlama data shows. That's been fueled by $141.5 million net inflows into the token since June. Gold currently traded at around $3,470, just shy of the April 22 peak hit amidst the tariff tantrum. The precious metal, which is widely considered as a safe haven asset during times of uncertainty, has been resurging lately, driven by a steepening U.S. Treasury yield curve. Read more: Gold’s Rally Has a Big Catalyst, and It Could Help Bitcoin Too