Tethers XAUT overtook PAXG in market cap, becoming the biggest tokenized gold asset.
Summary
- Tether mints $436.94 million worth of XAUT tokens
- XAUT overtakes PAXG in market cap, becoming largest tokenized gold asset
- This mint raised tokenized golds market cap by 20%
Tokenization is making an impact on how investors are buying gold. On Monday, August 11, CEX.io released a report detailing the biggest trends in the tokenized gold industry. The biggest event in recent months has been Tethers XAUT surpassing Paxos Gold in market cap.
On August 8, Tether minted 129,047.917 XAUT tokens, worth about $436.94 million. This not only made it the biggest gold tokenized asset by market cap, but also pushed the total market cap of tokenized gold by 20%.
This mint came as XAUT overtook PAXG in terms of trader engagement and active holders. Since July 25, XAUTs trading volume surpassed both PAXG and KAU in daily trading volume.
Trading volumes of the top three tokenized gold assetts in the third quarter of 2025 | Source: CEX.io
XAUT also dominated in terms of new tokenized gold holders. In 2025, the number of XAUT holders rose by 173%, compared to 29% for PAXG. While PAXG still has a larger userbase, with a seven-fold advantage, the gap is closing quickly.
Macroeconomic conditions favor tokenized gold
As the original safe-haven asset, gold has benefited from the recent macroeconomic uncertainty. Specifically, since President Donald Trump announced his tariffs on major U.S. trading partners, tokenized gold volumes saw multi-week rallies. PAXG, XAUT, and KAU volumes all benefited, with quadruple digit growth in some cases.
Tokenized gold volume since January 2024 | Source: CEX.io
Tensions in the Middle East, sluggish labor market growth and other negative economic indicators also contributed to intrest. Notably, in the second quarter of 2025, tokenized gold volume surpassed $19 billion, overtaking major gold ETFs.