Combined, gold-backed tokens account for 85%+ of tokenized commodity supply.
That shift coincided with:
- Spot gold pushing to fresh highs
- Tokenized gold trading volumes exceeding $5.7B in 2025, including an 8× QoQ surge in Q4
- Stable or rising holder counts in gold-backed tokens, even as crypto risk appetite softened
Contrast that with crypto-native risk conditions:
- $BTC volatility stayed elevated - Perp funding remained muted - Open interest failed to expand meaningfully - Participation did not rebound with price
That divergence is the signal.
Capital didn’t rotate out of crypto. It rotated within crypto, from volatility assets to onchain representations of traditional safe havens.
This isn’t a price call.
It’s a regime read.
RWAs, especially tokenized gold, are emerging as risk-off rails inside crypto, used when leverage appetite compresses but onchain custody, settlement, and composability still matter.
De-risking didn’t mean leaving. It meant changing exposure onchain.
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This week's rotation is measurable.
While $BTC and $ETH traded lower on macro uncertainty, capital did not exit onchain rails. It rotated inside them.
Tokenized commodities now sit at $4.4B total market value, led by:
- @tethergold ($XAUT): $1.9B
- @Paxos Gold ($PAXG): $1.8B
Combined, gold-backed tokens account for 85%+ of tokenized commodity supply.
That shift coincided with:
- Spot gold pushing to fresh highs
- Tokenized gold trading volumes exceeding $5.7B in 2025, including an 8× QoQ surge in Q4
- Stable or rising holder counts in gold-backed tokens, even as crypto risk appetite softened
Contrast that with crypto-native risk conditions:
- $BTC volatility stayed elevated
- Perp funding remained muted
- Open interest failed to expand meaningfully
- Participation did not rebound with price
That divergence is the signal.
Capital didn’t rotate out of crypto.
It rotated within crypto, from volatility assets to onchain representations of traditional safe havens.
This isn’t a price call.
It’s a regime read.
RWAs, especially tokenized gold, are emerging as risk-off rails inside crypto, used when leverage appetite compresses but onchain custody, settlement, and composability still matter.
De-risking didn’t mean leaving.
It meant changing exposure onchain.
That’s the structural shift.