Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily
On September 2, spot gold rose more than 1% intraday, breaking through $3510/ounce, reaching a high of $3512.27/ounce, setting a new historical record; On the morning of the 3rd, spot gold surged more than $10 in the short term, with a highest report of $3547/ounce, again setting a new high. Surprisingly, there are reports that the World Gold Council is seeking to launch 'digital gold', which may change London's $900 billion physical gold market. This article consolidates recent gold price trends and industry dynamics, as well as information on mainstream gold tokenization projects for readers' reference.
Gold has once again begun to surge, with analysts predicting that gold prices may rise to 3,900 USD/ounce.
On September 1, spot gold rose above 3,470 USD/ounce, continuing to set new highs since April 22 of this year, with a daily increase of 0.67%.
Subsequently, within just 2 days, gold prices quickly broke above 3,500 USD and gradually stabilized, leading the industry to turn highly bullish on the future direction of gold prices.
Analyst: Gold prices are expected to reach the range of 3,600-3,900 USD in the coming months.
Philip Nova analyst Priyanka Sachdeva stated in a report that if spot gold prices continue to break through 3,500 USD, gold prices could reach the range of 3,600 – 3,900 USD per ounce in the coming months. She noted that the U.S. aggressive tariff stance has increased geopolitical risks, fueling safe-haven investments. She mentioned that factors such as interest rate cut expectations, political turmoil, and strong ETF demand have turned gold from a tactical hedge into a strategic essential asset for many investors. Sachdeva believes that the target of 3,800 USD/ounce may be the first clear psychological barrier for gold prices to break the current high point.
Financial Times: The World Gold Council is planning to launch 'digital gold'.
According to the Financial Times, the World Gold Council (WGC) is seeking to launch a digital form of gold, which could create a new way of trading, settling, and collateralizing gold, thus fundamentally changing London's 900 billion USD physical gold market.
World Gold Council CEO David Tait stated in an interview that this new form will make it possible for 'gold to be delivered digitally as collateral for the first time in the gold ecosystem.' Although many investors value gold precisely because of its physical nature and lack of counterparty risk, viewing it as a safe-haven asset, Tait believes that gold must be digitized to expand its market coverage. Tait stated: 'We are trying to establish a standardized digital layer for gold so that various financial products used in other markets can also be applied to the gold market in the future. My goal is to get many asset managers worldwide to rethink gold.'
This move is seen as a change made by the World Gold Council in response to the new financial investment environment—despite gold being viewed as a safe-haven asset due to its physical properties and lack of counterparty risk, many banks and investors see gold as a low-liquidity and non-yielding asset. As Tait said: 'From the perspective of collateral, banks can make huge profits—because they have the opportunity to use gold on their balance sheets as collateral.'
It is understood that this plan is mainly driven by a new digital sector called 'pooled gold interests (PGIs)', which will allow banks and investors to buy and sell partial ownership of physical gold stored in separate accounts. In Q1 2026, commercial entities in London will participate in the pilot of this model.
Currently, trading in the London gold market is divided into 'allocated gold' transactions (involving specific gold bars) and 'unallocated gold' transactions (only agreeing on the quantity of gold without specifying particular bars). The emergence of 'digital gold' may add a third type for over-the-counter gold trading in London.
Current market situation: The market value of gold tokenization plans is less than 1% of the market value of gold ETFs.
According to Coingecko data, the overall market value of tokenized gold is currently around 2.6 billion USD, compared to the gold ETF market, which has a market value as high as 400 billion USD. The former's scale is less than 1% of the latter, indicating that the gold tokenization market is still in its early stages and has huge development potential. Below are specific introductions to gold tokenization projects:
XAUT: Backed by Tether, with a market value of 1.32 billion USD.
According to on-chain data, Tether minted 129,000 tokens on Ethereum in early August, currently valued at approximately 455 million USD, thus its market value is now reported at 1.32 billion USD.
Previously, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino disclosed that if Tether were considered a 'country', its physical gold holdings would rank in the top 40. In July, Tether released an XAUT audit report stating that the circulating supply of XAUT tokens at that time was 246,524,330 (currently supported by over 37,572 tons of physical gold).
PAXG: Backed by Paxos, with a market value of approximately 1 billion USD.
PAXG is launched by the US stablecoin company Paxos, with its market value soaring to a record over 1 billion USD in the past three months. Since June, this token has continued to see net inflows, with monthly inflows reaching 141.5 million USD at one point. Currently, the circulating supply of this token is 282,566.
KAU: Backed by Kinesis & ABX, with a market value of approximately 160 million USD.
KAU is launched by Kinesis, a UK digital asset utility platform registered in the Cayman Islands, with each KAU pegged to 1 gram of investment-grade gold, stored in Kinesis vaults. Unlike other gold tokens, KAU supports purchases, trading, spending, and transfers. Apart from supporting redemption, users holding assets on the Kinesis platform can also earn monthly income through redistributed transaction fee income; spending KAU on the Kinesis virtual card also generates income, with the card supporting the purchase of gold, silver, and cryptocurrencies through instant conversion at over 80 million locations worldwide.
XAUm: Backed by Matrixport, with a market value of approximately 47 million USD.
In early August, Matrixport announced the official launch of the XAUm fixed income product, supporting large-scale investment cycles of 7 – 365 days, supporting 15 mainstream assets such as BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB, USDT, etc. Additionally, the Matrixport platform supports XAUm Mint, Swap, and XAUm collateral lending. This token is issued by Matrixdock, Matrixport's RWA tokenization platform; last month, it completed the second annual audit of 100% gold reserves conducted by the internationally renowned company CoinW, with its gold management scale increasing by 500% in six months.
VRO: Backed by VeraOne, with a market value of approximately 41 million USD.
VRO was launched by VeraOne based in London, UK. The project was co-launched by the AuCOFFRE.com group and cryptocurrency industry professional Owen Simonin, initially established in 2019, with a current token price of around 113 USD and relatively limited liquidity.
Below are the basic information of major projects (organized from @Grok):
Conclusion: The safe-haven properties of gold and its tax avoidance attributes.
It is worth mentioning that the recent surge in gold's new highs is not unrelated to the performance of the USD and US treasury bonds. Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio recently stated that the poor debt situation of the USD has indirectly driven up the price of gold; international investors have begun to shift from US treasuries to gold. US President Trump stated in August that 'gold will not be taxed.'
Now, gold tokens, which possess both safe-haven properties and tax avoidance attributes, may become an investment choice for more and more people.
(The above content is excerpted and reprinted with permission from partner PANews, original link | Source: Odaily Planet Daily)
"Gold prices surge again, this article reviews '5 major gold tokens'" was first published on (Block客).
