Over the past period, global financial markets have continued to fluctuate amid a complex environment of high interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and macroeconomic uncertainties. In contrast to the volatility of risky assets, the market has been reassessing stable value assets and benchmarks for real-world assets . Gold, silver, and other precious metals, as some of the oldest stores of value, have once again become key targets for institutional and investor attention.
Unlike previous cycles, this round of attention has not been confined to the traditional financial system but has begun to extend to the crypto market. As blockchain infrastructure matures, the on-chaining of real-world assets (RWAs) is moving from concept to practice, with precious metals considered one of the most representative early application scenarios.
From "holding physical gold and silver" to "on-chain mapping," precious metals are undergoing a structural change.
In the traditional financial system, precious metal investment has long faced problems such as limited trading hours, fragmented liquidity, and high settlement and custody costs. Even when participating through financial instruments such as ETFs, trading still depends on specific market hours and is difficult to manage in a unified manner with other assets.
The emergence of precious metal tokenization is not essentially a reshaping of the properties of gold and silver, but rather an upgrade to trading patterns and market structures . By pegging physical gold and silver to on-chain tokens at a 1:1 ratio, these assets can enter the 24/7 crypto market system, showcasing new possibilities in terms of price discovery efficiency, liquidity, and composability.
The tokenization of precious metals does not change the value attributes of gold and silver, but rather integrates them into the 24/7 continuously operating crypto market system through on-chain mapping. This means that precious metal prices are no longer passively reflected only within a limited trading window, but can continuously undergo price discovery and trading matching in the global market.
Taking PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUt), two relatively mature tokenized gold projects currently listed on the WEEX trading platform, as examples, their core value does not lie in the "decentralized narrative," but rather in providing precious metals with a more frequent, transparent, and accessible trading format . The tokenized silver project SLVON further extends this logic to the precious metals ETF field, enabling traditional financial assets to participate in global trading in digital form.
Industry insiders generally believe that the emergence of such assets is a relatively controllable and low-cost step for RWA to enter the crypto market.
WEEX: Building a complete 24/7 trading scenario for precious metal tokens
As RWA assets gradually enter the on-chain market, the role of trading platforms is also changing. Platforms are no longer just "asset listing providers," but need to strike a balance between asset selection, transaction structure design, risk control, and user awareness.
WEEX recently announced the launch of spot and contract trading for tokenized gold PAXG and XAUt, as well as the tokenized silver ETF project SLVON, covering multiple trading scenarios and providing users with a more complete range of precious metal asset trading options.
Unlike launching a single asset, WEEX's core strategy this time is to systematically introduce stable value assets like precious metals and integrate them into its 24/7 trading system . Through the combination of spot and contract trading, users can not only participate in precious metal price fluctuations at any time, but also exercise greater flexibility in risk management and strategy adjustments in response to market changes.
Ethan, co-founder and chief security officer of WEEX, pointed out in a public exchange that RWA is not a short-term narrative, but a long-term project with extremely high requirements for trading infrastructure. "When real-world assets enter the on-chain market, trading hours change from 'limited time periods' to '24/7 operation,' and the platform needs to have a more stable system architecture and a more mature risk control mechanism to support the continuous trading demand of such assets."
In his view, trading platforms should play the role of neutral infrastructure providers in the RWA process, rather than simply pursuing the expansion of the number of assets. This also means that when introducing real-world assets such as precious metals, platforms need to maintain a balance between liquidity, trading continuity, and risk control.
Starting with precious metals, RWA asset trading is becoming increasingly diversified.
From a longer-term perspective, the tokenization of precious metals is not the end, but rather a "stress test" for RWA assets entering the crypto market. Its trading activity, user engagement, and risk performance are providing a reference sample for more real-world assets to be tokenized in the future.
Based on this assessment, WEEX is also advancing the construction of a precious metals zone, and may launch more precious metal token projects in the future, gradually expanding the trading coverage of real assets.
From an industry perspective, as the number of RWA-related products gradually increases, the market's focus will shift from simply "whether assets are on-chain" to transaction depth, liquidity quality, and risk management capabilities . This also places higher demands on trading platforms.
As the crypto market continues to evolve, precious metal tokens may not represent a short-term hot asset, but rather a transitional form connecting traditional finance and the crypto market. The infrastructure development surrounding this form is becoming an important direction for trading platforms to differentiate themselves.
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