Hyperliquid Whales Go All-In on PAXG as Gold Nears $5,000 Milestone

Big money is making a play for digital gold.

On-chain activity shows deep-pocketed traders—the so-called 'whales' on the Hyperliquid derivatives exchange—are piling into PAXG, the tokenized gold asset. Their timing isn't subtle. It coincides with a historic surge in the underlying commodity, pushing the precious metal toward a once-unthinkable $5,000 per ounce.

The Digital-Gold Rush

This isn't your grandpa's safe-haven trade. The move highlights a seismic shift in how institutional capital hedges against volatility. Instead of lining up at a bullion depository, these players are executing massive swaps on a decentralized platform, using a crypto token pegged to physical gold bars sitting in a London vault.

The mechanics are simple, but the implications are huge. PAXG offers instant liquidity and composability that a gold bar never could—plug it into a DeFi yield strategy, use it as collateral for a loan, or trade it 24/7. For the whales, it's the perfect hybrid: the millennia-old credibility of gold wrapped in the frictionless efficiency of a blockchain.

Reading the Tea Leaves

Analysts see this as a multi-layered bet. On one level, it's a straightforward inflation and geopolitical hedge, a classic flight to safety. But the choice of venue—a cutting-edge perpetual swaps exchange—suggests a more nuanced, active strategy. These traders aren't just hiding; they're positioning, likely using leverage to amplify their exposure to gold's momentum while staying within the digital asset ecosystem.

It’s a stark reminder that in modern finance, even the most ancient stores of value get a software upgrade. The cynical take? Wall Street spent decades building gold ETFs to democratize access, only for crypto to truly democratize—and supercharge—the speculation around it.

The whales have spoken. They're not waiting for a gold standard; they're building a digital one.

PAXG is one of the two major tokenized gold tokens, in addition to Tether’s XAUT. The asset was selected for derivative trading on Hyperliquid, lining up among blue-chip crypto coins. 

Hyperliquid traders go long on gold

Hyperliquid whales built long positions on PAXG, taking up over 89% of open interest. PAXG open interest as a whole rose NEAR a three-year high, to over $220M. 

Outside Hyperliquid, traders are more cautious longing PAXG, with only 59% in long positions. The growth in long positions is also more gradual, signaling Hyperliquid as the hottest venue for gold speculation. 

Spot gold on international markets traded near its all-time peak at $4,830.05. PAXG saw increasing interest in trading, showing a premium at $4,841.56. The token is still mostly relying on its Binance pair for the bulk of centralized volumes. Gold-backed tokens are just entering decentralized trading, as crypto networks are switching to traditional assets. 

PAXG also traded at a premium to Tether’s XAUT, which settled at $4,826.23. XAUT is valued at $2.5B in total, with $300M in daily trading. In the past days, PAXG achieved higher daily volumes of over $441M. PAXG tracks the spot gold price closely, with the exception of short-term premiums.

PAXG and gold trading attracts whales

PAXG is still traded as a novelty token. Its overwhelming bullish open interest of 89% depends on the size of positions, rather than the number of traders. 

On Hyperliquid, a total of 18 whales are making bets on PAXG, evenly split between long and short traders. Short positions are receiving small fees from holding onto the unpopular side of the market. Currently, the biggest position for $10.52M was short, holding an unrealized loss of $445K. Long traders are cautious, posting much smaller positions for now. 

Recently, one whale built a notable position on XYZ:silver and XYZ:gold, two of the other tokenized options on Hyperliquid. The whale’s positions hold a small unrealized loss. For now, the tokenized metals are still traded at lower volumes compared to crypto native tokens. The whale’s total positions are for just under $1M. 

The recent inclusion of gold and tokenized stocks on crypto exchanges aims to offset the slower altcoin volumes. The trading also means platforms can continue to draw in high daily fees, even with a general market downturn. Hyperliquid is still in the top 5 fee producers, with $3.41M in revenues for the past day.

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