Amid the resurgence of the US-China trade war and rising global economic uncertainty, assets with hedging properties are once again in high demand. Over the past month, gold-based cryptocurrencies have performed strongly, with multiple gold-pegged tokens, including Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos Gold (PAXG), reaching all-time highs, reflecting the rapidly growing market demand for such products.
Gold Tokens Reach New Highs, Monthly Increase of Nearly 7%
According to CoinMarketCap data, as of April 22, Tether Gold (XAUT) price rose to $3,529 per token, while Paxos Gold (PAXG) also recorded a high of $3,520, both reaching historic peaks. Others like Quorium (QGOLD) and Kinesis Gold (KAU) also performed well, rising 8.5% and 7.6% respectively over the past 30 days.
Looking at the performance over the past year, these gold-based tokens have gained over 40%, far outperforming most traditional assets, such as the S&P 500 index, which only rose 8.06% during the same period. According to Tether's latest report, the recent surge in XAUT demand is primarily due to escalating global economic and geopolitical tensions, and a significant market preference for inflation-resistant assets.
Trump Trade War Reignites, Boosting Safe-Haven Demand
The trigger came from US President Trump restarting the trade war on April 2, imposing a new round of tariffs on over 180 countries and regions, which he called "Liberation Day". On that day, gold was priced at $3,115, and by April 28 had risen to $3,335, an increase of 7% in less than a month, even briefly breaking the $3,500 mark.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) is also viewed as "digital gold", rising 14% in April, highlighting its hedging properties. However, compared to the highly volatile Bitcoin, crypto assets pegged to physical gold are seen by some investors as a more stable option.
RWA Market Expansion, Gold Token Application Deepens
The growth of gold tokens has also driven the Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization trend. According to RWA.xyz data, excluding stablecoins, the total RWA token market value has reached $21.6 billion, an increase of 8.6% from the previous month.
Tether Gold and Paxos Gold are such products. The former stores gold in a Swiss vault, while the latter has storage facilities in London. Both claim a 1:1 physical gold backing for each token. Tether recently announced that its XAUT has been officially certified by El Salvador and released its first compliance audit report, indicating that the currently circulating XAUT is backed by over 7.7 tons of gold.
Gold tokens have become a strong use case in the crypto market this year, reaching a two-year high in trading volume on April 10, reflecting the growing market demand for hedging and efficient gold asset allocation.
Combining Payment and Trading, Gold Tokens Break Investment Frameworks
Compared to traditional gold ETFs or physical storage tools, tokenized gold offers digital asset advantages such as supporting instant settlement, being tradable at any time, and some platforms even allowing token holders to directly pay for goods and services, lowering the barriers to ownership and use, and opening up more application scenarios.
Analysts point out that with current inflationary pressures and uncertain monetary policies, gold-based cryptocurrencies are expected to become a key allocation in stable income investment portfolios. If global economic volatility intensifies, gold and its digital derivatives may continue to attract capital.
