Tokenized Gold Gobbles 25% of RWA Growth as Trading Volume Surpasses Gold ETFs

Digital gold just outshone its physical counterpart—and Wall Street's favorite wrapper.

When Paper Gold Gets Dusty

Forget vaults and futures contracts. The real action in gold ownership has shifted to the blockchain. Tokenized gold—digital tokens backed one-to-one by physical bullion—now accounts for a quarter of all growth in the real-world asset (RWA) sector. More telling? Its daily trading volume has officially overtaken that of traditional gold exchange-traded funds.

The On-Chain Gold Rush

This isn't just niche adoption; it's a fundamental bypass of legacy finance gates. Investors aren't just buying gold—they're buying programmable, instantly-settled, 24/7 accessible gold. They're cutting out the custodial middlemen, the market-hour limitations, and the settlement delays that have plagued the commodity for decades. The infrastructure built for everything from DeFi yield to cross-border payments now cradles the oldest store of value.

A New Benchmark for Real-World Assets

The 25% figure is a beacon. It signals that RWAs aren't a speculative side-show but are becoming core to the digital asset narrative. When a millennia-old asset class finds more efficient liquidity on-chain than through established financial institutions, the writing isn't just on the wall—it's immutably recorded on a public ledger. It turns out the 'safe haven' asset preferred escaping the very system meant to safeguard it—a delicious irony not lost on anyone who's paid a wealth manager's fee for underperformance.

The vaults are now virtual, the trades are permissionless, and the old guard is left holding paper promises while digital gold trades around the clock. Somewhere, a finance bro is still explaining ETF expense ratios, completely missing the silent revolution happening in the tokenized ether.

Tokenized Gold Accounts for a Quarter of RWA Growth

According to the report, tokenized gold recorded a 177% increase in market capitalization in 2025, expanding from roughly $1.6 billion to $4.4 billion. This added nearly $2.8 billion in net value accounting for around 25% of all net RWA growth over the year.

In contrast the broader DeFi market struggled to regain momentum with total value locked (TVL) rising by just 2% while RWAs grew by approximately 184% making them crypto’s standout performer.

CEX.IO notes that tokenized gold expanded 2.6 times faster than physical gold which itself saw a strong year amid inflation concerns and geopolitical uncertainty.

The category also registered a 198% increase in total holders, adding more than 115,000 new wallets—growth that outpaced tokenized U.S. Treasuries and other tokenized bonds.

Trading Volumes Rival Gold ETFs

Trading activity tells an even more striking story. Tokenized gold trading volume jumped 1,550% year-on-year, reaching $178 billion in total volume in 2025. In the fourth quarter alone volume exceeded $126 billion surpassing the combined trading volume of five major gold ETFs.

While SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) remained the single largest gold investment product by volume the report estimates that tokenized gold WOULD rank as the second-largest gold investment vehicle globally by trading volume ahead of every ETF except GLD. This highlights a structural shift in where gold trading liquidity is forming increasingly moving on-chain.

A Highly Concentrated Market

Despite rapid growth, the market remains highly concentrated. The top three tokenized gold assets—Tether Gold (XAUT), PAX Gold (PAXG) and Kinesis Gold (KAU)—control roughly 97% of total market capitalization while the top four account for 99% of trading volume.

XAUT dominated trading activity in late 2025 representing 75% of total Q4 volume following a reserve attestation that appeared to boost market confidence.

CEX.IO also highlighted emerging products such as Matrixdock Gold (XAUM) which saw market cap growth of more than 1,000% after integration with the PLUME ecosystem.

Complementing Not Replacing Stablecoins

The report explains that tokenized gold is not competing directly with stablecoins but instead acts as a tactical hedge. During periods of market stress, traders appear to rotate capital into tokenized gold as a middle ground between risk-on crypto assets and risk-off stablecoins.

Overall, CEX.IO concludes that 2025 marked a turning point for tokenized gold, transforming it from a niche RWA category into a large-scale, liquid gold investment vehicle.

While concentration risks remain the data suggests tokenized gold is now firmly established as a meaningful component of both the RWA and global gold investment landscape.