Tokenized Gold Market Hits $3.9B as Stablecoins Explode—Traditional Finance Shrugs

Digital gold just got heavier—tokenized precious metals now command a $3.9B market cap while stablecoins mint fresh billions. Who needs Fort Knox when you’ve got blockchain?

Stablecoins eat fiat’s lunch

The numbers don’t lie: investors are fleeing volatility faster than a bank CEO dodging subpoenas. Stablecoin supplies balloon as traders park cash in crypto’s answer to money markets—with none of the paperwork.

Gold 2.0 outshines the OG

Tokenized bullion quietly became the VIP section of crypto—all the glitter of physical gold without the armored trucks. Meanwhile, Wall Street still thinks ‘blockchain’ is a ski resort.

Wake-up call for traditional finance: while banks debate CBDCs, crypto rebuilt the monetary system during their coffee break. The irony? They’ll probably license the tech back from us at 100x markup.

In brief

• Tokenized gold has grown into a $3.9 billion market, marking a major step forward for real-world assets on-chain.
• This rise comes alongside significant activity in stablecoins, with Circle and Tether issuing more than $13 billion since the early October market crash.

Stablecoins Expand After Early October Crash

Blockchain analysis firm Lookonchain reported that Circle, the company behind USD Coin (USDC), minted $1 billion on November 14, following a $500 million issuance earlier in the same week, bringing the total stablecoins created by Circle and Tether since the early October market crash to $13.25 billion.

Meanwhile, ethereum continues to anchor much of the stablecoin activity. Milk Road reported that the supply of stablecoins on the network has grown more than 65 times since January 2020. Over the same period, its fully diluted market capitalization increased by 21.6%, showing that the growth of economic activity on the network has outpaced the increase in its total valuation.

The second-largest cryptocurrency also accounts for a substantial share of the market. According to DefiLlama, Ethereum holds $167.295 billion in stablecoins, representing 55% of the total market capitalization of $304.264 billion. These figures reinforce Ethereum’s ongoing central role in the stablecoin ecosystem.

Tokenized Gold Gains Traction

Alongside stablecoins, tokenized gold has become one of the fastest-growing areas within blockchain assets. Crypto researcher Emperor Osmon pointed out their recent growth over the past five months, with Tether Gold (XAUT) reaching $2.1 billion and Paxos Gold (PAXG) at $1.3 billion. Together, these two tokens account for the majority of the $3.9 billion market, with other projects making up the remainder.

Overall, tokenized gold has grown about 50 times since 2021, reflecting strong investor interest. While still small compared with the trillions represented by the traditional gold market, the pace of this rise shows how quickly tokenized real-world assets are gaining traction in the crypto space.

In the broader market, physical gold has also shown strong performance. Economist Peter Schiff reported that between December 2024 and mid-November 2025, gold rose by 60%, while Bitcoin is now back below the $100,000 mark, despite having reached as high as $126,000 during that period. This trend reflects gold’s resilience and reinforces the appeal of its digital counterparts.

Future of Tokenized Real-World Assets

Building on this strength, tokenized gold extends gold’s value into the digital economy. Kevin Rusher, founder of the real-world asset platform RAAC, explains that tokenized gold can be used in blockchain finance for activities such as borrowing and lending without converting to traditional currency. This transforms gold from a purely passive investment into an active asset that participates in decentralized financial systems.

At a broader scale, Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, predicts that the market for tokenized real-world assets could reach $2 trillion by 2028. He also anticipates that Ethereum will continue to host the majority of this activity, given its current dominance in both stablecoins and tokenized asset markets.

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