Crypto investors are piling into tokenized gold as digital asset markets tread water, sending inflows into Paxos’ gold token to a record high in January.
Paxos Gold (PAXG), backed by physical gold held in LBMA boxes in London, raised more than $248 million in fresh capital through January, DefiLlama data shows. That lifted PAXG’s market cap above $2.2 billion, just behind .
The wave of inflows coincides with gold enjoying a blistering rally. The precious metal crossed $5,300 an ounce on Wednesday, up 22% to January and up more than 90% in the past year. Meanwhile, bitcoin has fallen over 10% in a year and the broader crypto market has sunk
This dynamic has shifted the attention of some crypto investors to blockchain-based gold looking for protection in an uncertain macro environment, said James Harris, CEO of crypto returns platform Tesseract Group.
“The growing traction of tokenized gold has improved gold’s utility, particularly around portability and divisibility,” he said, “while bitcoin continues to trade more as a risk asset during periods of macro uncertainty.”
Tokens like PAXG and XAUT offer shared ownership of physical gold with blockchain-based transfers and crypto wallet compatibility. For investors, it’s a way to hold a centuries-old store of value without needing a box.
The total tokenized gold market has now topped $5.5 billion, according to CoinGecko, marking an all-time high as both inflows and gold prices push the sector to new heights.
