Tokenized gold trading volume surpasses $1 billion for the first time since the 2023 banking crisis
Date: 2025-04-11 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
Tokenized gold trading volume surpassed $1 billion over the past week for the first time since March 2023. This comes as global instability following the Trump administration’s imposition of new import tariffs has prompted investors to shift their focus to safer assets.
The last time such a surge was seen was in March 2023, when several US banks, including Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank, went out of business and Signature Bank was shut down by New York regulators. These events have sparked a surge in demand for assets with capital protection properties.
According to research from CEX.io, interest in tokenized gold has been growing rapidly since early February, when digital market participants began to feel the impact of the escalating trade conflict. Among the leaders in growth were tokens such as Paxos Gold (PAXG), Tether Gold (XAUT), and Kinesis Gold (KAU), whose trading volumes increased by 900%, 300%, and more than 83,000%, respectively, since Trump’s first announcement of tariffs on January 20.
Amid general uncertainty, tokenized gold has proven to be one of the most successful crypto categories, with its market cap growing by 21% and trading volume more than 10 times. In comparison, stablecoins have increased by only 8% in capitalization and 285% in trading volume over the same period.
The rise in popularity of tokenized gold coincided with an all-time high in physical gold prices, which exceeded $3,100 per ounce in late March. At the time of publication, gold was trading above $3,118. Since the beginning of 2025, its price has increased by 18%, while Bitcoin has fallen by more than 12%, according to TradingView data.
According to CEX.io analyst Illy Otychenko, such figures highlight the increased demand for safe-haven assets. Although tokenized gold cannot yet fully compete with physical metal, it is actively used by crypto investors as a diversification tool.
He noted that tokenized gold mainly attracts a crypto audience that might otherwise choose Bitcoin or stablecoins, but in an unstable environment prefers gold in digital format.
In general, the aggravation of geopolitical and economic risks caused by US tariff policy continues to stimulate growing interest in tokenized assets, including gold and stablecoins, as alternatives to traditional capital preservation tools.
