Fifteen months ago, the price of an ounce of pure gold was $1,790; since then, the price has risen 3.51% to today’s exchange rate of $1,853 per ounce. While gold has risen in value, the top two tokenized gold coins have grown significantly since that time. For example, the market capitalization of Pax gold (PAXG) has swelled 407% since February 26, 2021, and the market capitalization of Tether’s XAUT has swelled 248% since that date. Currently, the combined market capitalization of PAXG and XAUT is equivalent to a value of just over $1 billion.
PAXGold
Between the top two gold token blockchain projects today, there is just over $1 billion in tokenized gold. The first project is pax gold (PAXG), which has the largest market capitalization, valued at $620 billion. pax gold, orasset-backed coincalled PAXG, is an ERC20 token built on Ethereum, and each PAXG is one fine troy ounce (t oz) of equivalent to a London Good Delivery Gold (LBMA).
PAXGs are issued byPaxosand holders can exchange their PAXGs “for LBMA Certified Good Delivery gold” with a minimum exchange quantity of 1 t oz. According to Archive.org’s statisticsPAXG was the second largest tokenized gold coin with a market capitalization of $122 million as of the end of February 2021, according to Archive.org.
Today, PAXG occupies the #1 position among tokenized gold coins by market capitalization, having grown by 407% over the past 15 months. Since that date, the gold price has risen only 3.51% from $1790 to $1853 per t oz. In other words, most of PAXG’s growth has come from coins minted for circulation.
On February 26, 2021, PAXG had a valuation of only $122 billion and global trading volume of $16.9 million in a 24-hour period that day. Today, PAXG has a valuation of $620 billion and a 24-hour global trading volume of $11 million, as PAXG’s most popular trading pair is Tether (USDT), as this token captures 69% of all Pax Gold swaps.
Tokenized gold coins issued by Paxos also trade with the stablecoin BUSD at 12.67% of all trades, and bitcoin (BTC) is the third most traded PAXG at 12.05% of all trades in the past 24 hours pair with 12.05% of all trades in the past 24 hours. Other notable PAXG pairs are WETH (3.09%),BNB(1.05%); BNB (1.21%), USD (1.08%), EUR (0.79%)
The top exchanges with the highest volume of PAXG transactions include Binance, Kucoin, Crypto.com, Binance USA, Gemini, Bybit, Bithumb Global, FTX, and Coinex. PAXG is currently the market valued top tokenized gold coin, but Tether’s XAUT is not far behind.
Tether Gold
Everyone knows that Tether issues stablecoins; USDTis widely known and stablecoins are known to be the largest by market cap. However, it is not generally known that Tether issues other asset-backed coins that hold the redemption value of some fiat currencies.
Tether also issues a token called Tether Gold (XAUT), which is currently the second largest tokenized gold coin by market capitalization. At the time of this writing, XAUT has an overall valuation of $458 million and global trading volume of $1.45 million over the past 24 hours. Tether’s XAUT websitestates that one XAUT equals 1 t oz, which meets LBMA standards.
Tether states that it offers “multiple redemption options” and that “holders of XAUTs may make redemption requests in physical gold form as long as they complete TG Commodities Limited’s verification process and hold the required minimum number of XAUTs . may make a redemption request in the form of physical gold,” noting that.
On February 26, 2021, the market valuation of Tether’s tokenized gold XAUT was approximately $131 million, with $1.6 million in 24-hour global trading volume that day. Since then, the market valuation of XAUT has increased by 248% to today’s market capitalization of $458 million.
The combined value of PAXG and XAUT is $1 billion
There are several other asset-backed tokensthat leverage the value and backing of precious metals stored in vaults, but the market capitalization of PAXG and XAUT are giants by comparison. Based on the number of coins issued and the current value of gold, the two together are valued at just over $1 billion.
According to the data, there are 333,601 PAXG tokens currently in circulation and 246,524 XAUT. In terms of gold’s overall market valuation of $11.795 trillion, the market capitalization of PAXG and XAUT is like a grain of sand in comparison. Of the more than 13,400 cryptocurrencies in the crypto economy, PAXG’s valuation ranks 86th and XAUT’s market capitalization ranks 112th.
What do you think about the top gold tokens with a market valuation of just over $1 billion and the growth you have seen in 15 months? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
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