Gold Price Achieves Strongest Rally in 46 Years, Tokenized Gold Trading Volume Already Exceeds Full-Year 2025
Gold is experiencing its strongest rally since 1979, with prices reaching a record high near $5,600 per ounce in January. This surge is driven primarily by central banks, not retail investors. In 2025, central banks net purchased 863 tonnes of gold, with a similar increase expected in 2026.
Traditional gold investment methods—physical bullion and ETFs—present trade-offs like storage issues, limited access, or management fees. Tokenized gold emerges as a third option: digital tokens representing ownership of physical bars stored in professional vaults. These tokens are globally transferable in seconds, divisible, and redeemable for physical metal.
The potential impact mirrors that of dollar stablecoins. Stablecoins digitized the dollar, enabling cheap, instant, global transfers and driving adoption from $27 billion in 2020 to over $3 trillion today. Similarly, tokenized gold solves gold's "form problem"—its lack of divisibility, portability, and accessibility.
Adoption is accelerating. In Q1 2026, tokenized gold trading volume hit $90.7 billion, surpassing the $84.6 billion for all of 2025. Its market cap exceeded $6 billion, growing 5.5 times faster than physical gold holdings in the quarter.
While concerns about counterparty risk exist, tokenized gold represents a direct claim on allocated bars, with major issuers providing regular attestation reports. Just as stablecoins placed dollars on a digital, global rail, tokenized gold now offers a more practical form for this ancient asset, potentially expanding access to billions.
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