"RBC-Crypto" does not provide investment advice, the material is published for informational purposes only. Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that can lead to financial losses.
While Bitcoin and most other cryptoassets experienced significant price volatility throughout 2025, gold confidently set new highs. For investors who did not want to leave the digital market, there was a way to participate in this rally through gold-backed stablecoins. This niche asset category became one of the main beneficiaries of the year, demonstrating one of the best returns in the market.
Gold-backed stablecoins showed one of the highest returns on the crypto market since the beginning of 2025, with growth of about 65%. Among the top hundred cryptocurrencies by capitalization, according to Coinmarketcap data as of December 17, "gold tokens" outperformed most major cryptoassets in terms of percentage growth.
The largest representatives of "gold tokens" are PAXG from Paxos and XAUT from Tether. According to The Block data as of December 17, their combined capitalization accounts for about 87% of the entire market, with figures of $1.5 billion and $2.25 billion.
In early December 2025, the capitalization of the gold-based token sector exceeded $4 billion for the first time in history, representing a growth of more than three times compared to the beginning of the year. The main share of the increase came from PAXG and XAUT—their values at the beginning of the year were $525 million and $645 million.
Leader of the Crypto Market
Over the 11 months of 2025, gold quotes rose for eight months in a range from 2% to 11%. In May, June, and July, price changes did not exceed 1%. A historical maximum was reached in October at a level above $4.38 thousand per ounce. According to Tradingview data as of December 17, the price has decreased by less than 2% from the record level.
For comparison: Bitcoin, like gold, reached a maximum in October at $126.2 thousand, but by the current moment its quotes have fallen from the peak by more than 30%. And since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have lost 8% and 12% respectively, trading around $87 thousand and $2.9 thousand. The capitalization of the crypto market as a whole fell by about 9%, to $2.97 trillion, over the same period.
Coins that outperformed gold in terms of yield since the beginning of the year belong to the privacy sector—Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) with growth of 600% and 125% respectively. And the coins with the closest yields following the "gold tokens" include the token affiliated with the largest crypto exchange Binance—BNB (BNB) and the most popular hard fork (modified version of the codebase) of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Their growth rates since the beginning of the year were about 25%.
Gold vs. Bitcoin
During geopolitical and other crises, investors tend to buy assets that can protect their capital from risks. Traditionally, one such asset is considered to be gold. This is what happened in 2025 after Donald Trump took office as US President in early January, when he began applying trade tariff policies to various countries.
Initially, many experts assumed that against the backdrop of macroeconomic shocks, Bitcoin would move together with gold. Especially actively, the thesis was promoted during periods of active growth of the main cryptocurrency. For example, against the backdrop of explosive growth at the end of 2024, the largest capital manager—BlackRock—repeatedly noted the hedging properties of Bitcoin during geopolitical tensions and concerns about the state of the US national debt and budget deficit.
However, in 2025, the thesis that Bitcoin plays the role of a hedging asset was called into question, and gold confirmed itself as a protective asset. Experts began to point this out against the backdrop of diverging dynamics in the middle of the year.
"It is unfair to think that institutional investors invest capital in Bitcoin for the same reason as in gold. These two assets do not play the same role in investment portfolios," said eToro analyst Josh Gilbert in August.
The yield of gold since the beginning of 2025 is 26% ahead of Bitcoin and many other asset classes, such as the leading US stock indices—NASDAQ and S&P 500. Their quotes have increased by 17% and 12% respectively since the beginning of the year. In 2025, gold correlates more with indices than with the main cryptocurrency.
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