Tokenized gold trading has crossed the $1 billion weekly volume threshold for the first time since March 2023. This development comes as investors seek safe-haven assets following President Trump's import tariff announcements that have sparked global economic concerns as reported by BTC Peers.

The current trading activity represents the highest weekly volume in two years, dating back to when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, Silvergate Bank entered voluntary liquidation, and New York regulators closed Signature Bank operations.

Interest in gold-backed tokens has grown rapidly since early February when global trade tensions began affecting digital markets. Following Trump's January 20 tariff announcement, trading volumes across several tokens have shown dramatic growth:

• Paxos Gold (PAXG) trading volume increased over 900%
• Tether Gold (XAUT) trading rose more than 300%
• Kinesis Gold (KAU) volume surged by over 83,000%

Tokenized gold has been one of the top-performing crypto categories since Trump took office. Market capitalization has grown by over 21% while trading volume has increased by more than 1,000%. By comparison, stablecoins recorded an 8% market cap increase and 285% trading volume growth in the same timeframe.

These digital gold assets form part of the growing real-world asset tokenization sector. This category includes various financial products and physical assets like real estate and fine art that have been minted on blockchain technology.

This trend aligns with broader industry growth, as real-world asset protocols recently surpassed $10 billion in total value locked. Major players are taking notice, with Apollo Global Management—which manages over $700 billion in assets—recently investing seven figures in Plume Network's tokenization platform.

The rise in tokenized gold trading occurs alongside other Bitcoin DeFi developments. Core, a proof-of-stake blockchain built on Bitcoin, recently reached $260 million in dual-staked assets, with over 44 million Core tokens dual-staked with 3,140 Bitcoin as of April 7.

Physical gold prices have also reached new heights during this period. On March 31, gold hit an all-time high above $3,100 per ounce and was trading at $3,118 at time of writing. Gold prices have increased over 18% since the start of 2025, outperforming Bitcoin, which has fallen more than 12% year-to-date.

Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at Cex.io, noted that "Tokenized gold presents a compelling alternative for crypto-native investors who might otherwise look to Bitcoin or stablecoins." He added that these assets primarily serve as portfolio diversification tools as market uncertainty grows.