Boom in tokenized gold trading: an alternative to crypto?

In recent months there has been a real boom in tokenized gold trading

In fact, according to CoinGecko data, in the first quarter of 2026 alone tokenized gold generated a trading volume higher than that of the entire year 2025

Tokenized gold is increasingly traded on crypto exchanges because it has in fact become a sort of alternative to cryptocurrencies, in some respects

Tokenized gold

Tokenized gold is nothing more than real, physical gold that can be traded on crypto exchanges in the form of tokens.

In fact, the companies that issue gold-backed tokens on the market hold in their reserves an amount of physical gold equal to that of the tokens issued on the market

However, this market is dominated by only two tokens: Tether’s XAUT and Pax’s PAXG.

Both tokens have the same price as one ounce of spot gold, that is, the benchmark price of gold on financial markets, and they have very similar market capitalizations: almost 2.8 billion dollars for XAUT, and almost 2.2 billion for PAXG

They can also be traded on many exchanges, including decentralized ones

With a total market capitalization of about 5.5 billion dollars for the tokenized gold market, XAUT and PAXG alone account for almost 5 billion dollars, or nearly 90% of this market

Volumes

According to CoinGecko data, in just the first three months of the current year tokenized gold generated trading volumes of almost 91 billion dollars, whereas in all of 2025 it stopped at less than 85

In reality, the surge had already begun last year, but only after the month of August. However, there have been three spikes in total since then: one in August 2025, a second in November, and a third, even bigger, between late January and early February 2026

It should be specified that the first quarter ended on March 31, and since then volumes have dropped a bit. However, they have remained at the high levels of early January, that is, those prior to the latest surge, which was very short-lived.

Obviously all this is linked to the trend of the gold price, but very likely also to the crypto bear market, given that many crypto traders have greatly reduced their trading volumes on cryptocurrencies

For example, the main spot trading pair in the world between Bitcoin and USDT went from almost 3 billion dollars in daily trades at the end of 2024 to the current 1.4. In other words, in a year and a half its volumes have halved. For smaller altcoins the drop has certainly been significantly greater

On the other hand, taking as a reference the main spot trading pair of tokenized gold with USDT, in the same period it went from less than 4 million dollars to more than 23. Moreover, in March the daily average even exceeded 30 million

Although these are still very limited volumes overall, the growth is astonishing

Just to have a benchmark, on gold futures on traditional exchanges the daily average is close to 900 million dollars

The price of gold

Right at the beginning of 2025 the price of gold started its latest run, which for now ended in January 2026 with new all-time highs

In one year the price went from $2,600 to over $5,500 per ounce, and then fell back to the current $4,660.

The first boom in tokenized gold trading volumes occurred at the same time as the price breaking through $3,500 per ounce, while the second coincided with the break above $4,000

Then, when in January 2026 it surpassed first $5,000 and then $5,500 in just one month, there was the latest trading boom, which however lasted only just over a week

To tell the truth, there was also a fourth small spike in March, that is, during the drop in the gold price from $5,300 to $4,200 per ounce

This makes it quite clear that what drives tokenized gold trading are precisely the sudden price movements, which are usually rather rare for gold

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that those trading tokenized gold on crypto exchanges are almost exclusively retail investors (or speculators), while institutional whales prefer other assets on other markets, such as, for example, futures on traditional exchanges

Forecasts

By comparing the average daily volumes of gold futures on traditional exchanges with those of tokenized gold on crypto exchanges, it turns out that institutional whales were already very active a year ago, in May 2025

While since then trading volumes on gold futures on traditional exchanges have increased by just over 40%, and then returned to the levels of a year ago, those of tokenized gold on crypto exchanges first increased by almost 500%, and then fell only slightly

This leads one to believe that institutional whales have no longer opened long-term long positions on gold above that $3,500 per ounce level that triggered the boom in tokenized gold trading, and they probably have not even opened medium-term long positions above $4,000

In fact, for now they have been right, since it has mainly been retail investors buying gold above $4,000 per ounce, while whales at those prices were instead selling

It remains to be seen, however, whether gold’s run can at some point resume, because according to several analysts the potential for one last bull run does exist, although very likely much smaller than last year’s.