Tokenized Gold Nears $2B Market Cap as Tariff Fears Spark Safe Haven Trade

As threat belongings together with cryptocurrencies struggled on Thursday amid tariff uncertainties, tokenized gold as soon as once more emerged as an outperformer within the carnage.

The market capitalization of gold-backed tokens swelled to simply below $2 billion on Wednesday, up 5.7% over the previous 24 hours, in accordance with CoinGecko knowledge. The rise coincided with the yellow metallic briefly touching a recent all-time above $3,170/oz, Buying and sellingView exhibits.

Alongside the worth rally, gold tokens skilled a frenzy of exercise and demand over the previous weeks, fueled by the broader market turmoil. Weekly tokenized gold buying and selling quantity surpassed $1 billion, the best because the U.S. banking turmoil of March 2023, in accordance with a report by digital asset platform CEX.IO.

The two largest tokens, Paxos Gold (PAXG), Tether Gold (XAUT), making up the majority of the tokenized gold market, noticed their weekly buying and selling volumes surging over 900% and 300%, respectively, since January 20, in accordance with the report citing CoinGecko knowledge. PAXG additionally skilled steady inflows totalling $63 million throughout this era, DefiLlama knowledge exhibits.

The rally tracks the broader positive aspects in bodily gold, which posted double-digit will increase in 2025 amid geopolitical uncertainty and inflation considerations. However, even gold wasn’t spared through the market-wide sell-off triggered by U.S. tariffs, with costs briefly dropping 6% earlier than rapidly recovering to file highs.

Since Trump’s inauguration, tokenized gold has been one in every of crypto’s high performing sectors, with its market cap up 21%, the report famous. By distinction, stablecoins gained a extra modest 8% in market cap, whereas bitcoin declined 19% and the overall crypto market misplaced 26%.

“Tokenized gold is emerging as one of the key diversification strategies among crypto-native users, alongside bitcoin,” wrote Alexandr Kerya, VP of product management at CEX.IO. “It provides a safer and more stable approach to portfolio management, enabling users to stay within the crypto ecosystem while benefiting from the value and stability of the underlying physical asset.”

“At the same time, the broader RWA narrative helps make gold exposure more accessible and intuitive for users who may not have considered it before,” Kerya added.

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