According to a CEX.io report, tokenized gold is showing significant growth compared to traditional investment instruments such as gold ETFs.
Growth of Tokenized Gold Trading Volume
The trading volume of tokenized gold has surpassed $19 billion this year, indicating a growing interest in this asset class. Specifically, in the second quarter of 2025, trading volume increased from $2.4 billion to $19.2 billion, marking an eightfold growth.
Comparison with Gold ETFs
Although tokenized gold still trails major ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares and iShares Gold Trust, it has outperformed smaller counterparts such as SGOL, AAAU, IAUM, and OUNZ. For four consecutive quarters, tokenized gold has shown higher trading volume growth compared to gold ETFs.
Retail Investors Driving the Shift
According to the CEX.io report, most of the new trading volume in tokenized gold is being driven by retail and crypto-native investors. Meanwhile, institutional investors continue to dominate traditional gold ETFs, with the number of PAXG holders growing by 25% and XAUT holders increasing by 151%.
Thus, tokenized gold continues to gain popularity, although it has not yet reached the same market capitalization as traditional gold ETFs. This indicates that tokenized gold is not yet viewed as a long-term store of value.
