Tokenized gold buying and selling quantity has surpassed $19 billion to this point this 12 months, outpacing many fashionable gold ETFs.
Tokenized belongings are steadily proving to be a viable various to conventional funding devices. In line with a July 8 report by CEX.io, tokenized gold is gaining traction in comparison with gold ETFs. The asset class has attracted $19 billion in buying and selling quantity this 12 months, outpacing a number of broadly held gold ETFs.
Buying and selling quantity in fashionable gold ETFs and tokenized gold within the second quarter of 2025 | Supply: CEX.io
Whereas tokenized gold nonetheless trails main ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and iShares Gold Belief (IAU), it has surpassed many smaller counterparts. The asset class now sees larger buying and selling quantity than SGOL, AAAU, IAUM, and OUNZ.
Furthermore, the expansion in tokenized gold buying and selling quantity has considerably outpaced all gold ETFs to this point this 12 months. Within the second quarter of 2025, quantity within the asset class rose from $2.4 billion to $19.2 billion—an eightfold improve.
This marks a part of a broader pattern, as tokenized gold has outperformed gold ETFs in buying and selling quantity progress for 4 consecutive quarters. In line with CEX.io, this outperformance means that capital is shifting from gold ETFs to tokenized gold belongings.
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Retail traders gasoline shift to tokenized gold
In line with the CEX.io report, many of the new buying and selling quantity in tokenized gold is being pushed by retail and crypto-native traders. In the meantime, institutional traders proceed to dominate conventional gold ETFs. Notably, the variety of PAXG holders grew by 25%, whereas XAUT holders elevated by 151%, highlighting a big inflow of recent merchants into the market.
Nonetheless, tokenized gold continues to path ETFs by way of market capitalization. For example, GLD’s complete market cap rose 36%, whereas tokenized gold’s grew simply 29%. This means that tokenized gold just isn’t but broadly perceived as a long-term retailer of worth; relatively, most merchants nonetheless use it as a utility asset throughout the DeFi ecosystem.
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