Tokenized Gold Trading Tops $90.7B in Q1 2026

Spot trading of tokenized gold reached $90.7 billion in Q1 2026, exceeding the $84.6 billion recorded for the full year 2025. Traders are using gold-backed tokens to gain around-the-clock exposure to physical bullion.

A recent report on real-world assets found centralized cryptocurrency exchanges handled most of the spot trading. Monthly volumes were uneven, mirroring changes in the gold price and market conditions. October 2025 saw a peak of $21.38 billion after gold hit fresh highs, up from $6.73 billion in September and followed by $14.07 billion in November.

The report identified two tokens as the main drivers of activity: PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT). Over a 15-month window, PAXG averaged $5.72 billion in monthly spot volume and XAUT averaged $5.32 billion, compared with an average total monthly volume of $11.69 billion. Monthly volume share for PAXG ranged roughly from 34% to 82%, while XAUT’s share ranged from about 15% to 65%.

Smaller precious-metals tokens recorded much lower average volumes. Kinesis Silver (KAG) averaged about $0.57 billion monthly, an omnichain deployment of XAUT averaged $0.10 billion, and Matrixdock’s XAUM averaged roughly $0.007 billion.

Market capitalization for tokenized commodities rose 289% to $5.55 billion over 15 months. The report attributed $1.87 billion of that increase to XAUT and $1.80 billion to PAXG, representing 89.1% of the category’s growth. PAXG’s market value grew to about $2.32 billion, lifting its share of the tokenized commodities category from 36.8% to 41.8%. XAUT remained largest by market value at roughly $2.52 billion.

Other tokens increased in absolute terms but lost market share. KAG’s market cap moved above $350 million while its share fell to about 4.8%. XAUM expanded roughly elevenfold to about $70 million, raising its share to about 1.3%.

The change in demand for tokenized gold affected the broader real-world asset market. Tokenized commodities now make up 28.7% of the RWA market, and Treasury-backed tokens’ share declined from 73.7% to 67.2% over the measured period. The report noted that the length of the rotation toward commodity tokens will depend on where physical bullion prices settle through 2026.