Key Highlights:

• PAXG and XAUT have increased over 23% year-to-date, paralleling gold’s price rise and outpacing the broader cryptocurrency market.
• By offering blockchain liquidity, tokenized gold enables crypto investors to gain access to real-world assets.
• Demand for gold ETFs surged to a three-year peak in Q1, indicating greater safety-seeking behavior among investors.

As gold markets experience a resurgence, crypto investors are increasingly turning to tokenized gold assets, which provide both price exposure and digital flexibility.

Gold-backed cryptocurrencies such as Paxos Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) have seen rises of 24.15% and 23.7%, respectively, this year, reaching record highs beyond $3,300, closely tracking gold’s performance. Recently, their prices adjusted to $3,265 and $3,244.

The performance of these tokens occurs amid a downturn in the overall cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin (BTC) losing over 11% of its value this year, and the broader market decreasing by approximately 30%, according to the CoinDesk 20 index.

Investors are increasingly utilizing these tokenized gold assets, backed by physical gold, amid uncertainties related to the escalating U.S.-China trade conflict. The trend reflects a larger movement back to gold as a dependable asset during turbulent times. Inflows into gold ETFs reached 226.5 tonnes in Q1 2025, marking the highest level since early 2022, with nearly 60% stemming from North America.

In the same vein, net minting of gold-backed cryptocurrencies surpassed $42.7 million in the first quarter of the year, according to data from RWA.xyz, contributing to an increase in their total market capitalization, now nearing $1.4 billion.