Summary:
- The tokenized gold market reached $2.5 billion, led by tokens XAUT and PAXG.
- Growth reflects the government and investors’ embrace of the tokenization of precious metals.
- Tokenized gold allows investors to gain exposure to the metal without the burden of purchasing the physical asset, and brings the benefits of digital assets (security, transferability, speed of transacting) to more traditional ones.
A feverish run in the price of gold has pushed the tokenized gold market past the $2.5 billion mark, as the per-oz price of the precious metal brushes up against all-time highs.
The price of gold hit a new all-time high this week, rising above $3,500 per ounce. Correspondingly, the market for tokenized gold—digital blockchain-based tokens that are supposed to be underpinned by some amount (often fractional) of real gold, effectively establishing digital ownership of a physical good—has also boomed.
Currently, the tokenized gold market is largely dominated by XAUT, Tether’s tokenized gold offering, and PAXG, by Paxos. XAUT minted $437 million worth of new supply in August, while Paxos’ PAXG drew in $141.5 million in June. Tokenized gold offerings are—in theory—backed by physical gold held by or on behalf of the token issuer.
PAXG’S total market cap is $985 million, ahead of the second-largest XAUT, which sits at $859 million.
It’s a sign of the trend toward tokenization and an illustration of the stark new reality that any discussion of the market for gold—and potentially any other precious metal or asset—must increasingly be made alongside a consideration of its tokenized equivalent.
The growth will also likely reflect the U.S.’s legislative efforts to bring stablecoins—and similarly-pegged digital assets—within the regulatory perimeter. The GENIUS Act, passed this year, provides a legal pathway for issuers of such tokens to generate yield, and the overall legitimization of the market is attracting increased institutional interest.
There are multiple reasons for the appeal of tokenizing precious metals. Practically, it allows investors to gain exposure to physical gold without purchasing, transporting, and storing the physical asset.
Similarly, it allows for frictionless transfer of ownership in the event of, for example, a sale: tokens can, in theory, be transferred as easily as Bitcoin. This means gold can be traded around the clock as seamlessly as a digital asset in an exchange.
A digital equivalent also allows for more fractional ownership: a kilo of gold can be split into 1,000 tokens, each representing a gram, which can then be sold as such.
Since such records are made on blockchains, they can also be immutable and tamper-proof on a level that could never be reached with traditional forms of record-keeping.
Watch: Tokenizing Gold and Stablecoins
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Source: https://coingeek.com/tokenized-gold-market-now-worth-more-than-2-5-billion/
