Tokenized gold buying and selling volume surged to a two-year excessive this week, topping $1 billion as traders pivoted towards safe-haven property amid world uncertainty triggered by US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs.
The weekly buying and selling volume of tokenized gold surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time since March 2023, when a US banking crisis noticed the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Financial institution and the voluntary liquidation of Silvergate Financial institution. Signature Financial institution was additionally compelled to shut operations by New York regulators on March 12, two days after Silvergate’s liquidation.
Tokenized gold has skilled a major surge in buying and selling curiosity since early February, when world commerce warfare fears began spreading to digital markets, in keeping with a CEX.io analysis report shared with Cointelegraph.
Since Trump’s first tariff announcement on Jan. 20, Paxos Gold (PAXG) buying and selling volume has surged by over 900%, Tether Gold (XAUT) buying and selling rose over 300% and Kinesis Gold (KAU) volume elevated by greater than 83,000%.
Tokenized gold has turn out to be one of many best-performing crypto classes since Trump’s inauguration, surging over 21% in market cap and over 1,000% in buying and selling volume, whereas stablecoins noticed an 8% market cap enhance and a 285% buying and selling volume growth throughout the identical interval.
Tokenized gold is a part of the rising real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector, which refers to monetary merchandise and tangible property resembling actual property and fantastic artwork minted on the blockchain.
Gold costs hit new highs
The surge in tokenized gold coincides with a record-setting efficiency in bodily gold. On March 31, gold hit an all-time excessive of over $3,100 per ounce and was buying and selling above $3,118 on the time of writing.
Because the starting of 2025, the worth of gold has risen over 18%, outperforming Bitcoin (BTC), which has fallen by greater than 12% year-to-date, TradingView information exhibits.
Gold’s strong worth efficiency after key tariff-related occasions highlights a rising urge for food for safe-haven property, in keeping with Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at Cex.io.
Nevertheless, tokenized gold stays removed from being a bodily gold competitor on the present “stage of RWA improvement,” the analyst advised Cointelegraph, including:
“Tokenized gold presents a compelling different for crypto-native traders who may in any other case look to Bitcoin or stablecoins.”
“On this context, tokenized gold has primarily served as a diversification instrument, gaining rising traction in investor portfolios as market uncertainty deepens,” he added
Geopolitical commerce tensions attributable to Trump’s import tariffs have impressed a flight to security amongst crypto traders, particularly towards stablecoins and tokenized property.
Following the 2023 banking crisis, the Federal Reserve created the Financial institution Time period Funding Program, providing banking loans of as much as a yr in return for posting “qualifying property” as collateral.
This emergency measure was what began the Bitcoin bull run in 2023, in keeping with BitMEX co-founder and former CEO Arthur Hayes.
