Tokenized gold market hits $3.9B – Why inflows now rival stablecoins
Tokenized gold is the unexpected winner of the RWA cycle.
Key takeaways
Is stablecoin issuance surging again?
Circle and Tether have minted over $13.25 billion after the recent crash.
What’s the fastest-growing part of tokenization right now?
Tokenized gold, now at $3.9 billion, is expanding faster than most RWA categories.
Circle just added another $1 billion in USD Coin [USDC], pushing recent stablecoin creation to over $13 billion.
But the most interesting changes in tokenization aren’t happening just there. Another corner of the market is accelerating quietly, and that may be the big deal.
Stablecoin issuance accelerates again
Circle added another $1 billion in USDC in the last few hours. This is a continuation of large-scale minting that has pushed post-crash issuance by Circle and Tether [USDT] to $13.25 billion.
Multiple $250 million USDC mints occurred in rapid succession.
This reflects a major structural shift on Ethereum [ETH]: since January 2020, the supply of stablecoins on the network has grown by 65.5 times, vastly outpacing Ethereum’s own 21.6-fold increase in fully diluted market cap over the same period.
Stablecoins have emerged as one of Ethereum’s most successful use cases, attracting capital at a rate that surpasses the growth of the network’s native assets.
Tokenized gold: The next major inflow channel?
Stablecoins may dominate on-chain liquidity, but gold-backed tokens have become one of the fastest-expanding segments in tokenization.
Over the past five months, the market cap of tokenized gold has climbed to $3.9 billion, led by XAUT at roughly $2.1 billion and PAXG at $1.3 billion. The chart shows a clear, uninterrupted rise since mid-2021, with the category growing nearly 50× in that period.
Demand has been steady rather than speculative. This is indicative of consistent inflows.
Why does this matter?
This matters because it shows how real-world assets are gaining traction.
Gold is a multi-trillion-dollar asset class, and even a small portion moving on-chain materially expands the scope of tokenized markets.
It shows growing demand for 24/7 settlement, transparent custody, and programmable ownership. These are advantages that apply regardless of the underlying chain.
As a result, more users are shifting toward blockchain infrastructure to manage assets that were traditionally held via custodians or ETFs.
