Gold pricing shifts onto blockchain networks once U.S. futures markets close for the weekend, according to Iggy Ioppe, former Credit Suisse chief investment officer and now CIO at liquidity infrastructure firm Theo. CME Group’s gold futures stop trading at 5:00 pm ET on Friday and reopen at 6:00 pm ET on Sunday. During that interval, regulated futures markets are inactive and most remaining activity is private over-the-counter dealing in Asia that is not publicly reported.
As a result, tokenized gold assets such as PAXG and XAUt become among the few continuously traded, publicly visible instruments that reference bullion over the weekend. “In terms of publicly visible price formation, onchain markets are responsible for virtually 100% of weekend price discovery,” Ioppe told Cointelegraph. He added that when futures trading resumes, prices often align with moves that already occurred on blockchain markets: “We are seeing weekend moves reflected when CME reopens.”
The shift comes amid rapid growth in tokenized gold. Over the past year tokenized gold expanded by nearly $2.8 billion, rising from roughly $1.6 billion to about $4.4 billion in market capitalization. That 177% increase outpaced broader gold-market gains and most major spot-gold ETFs. The number of holders nearly tripled, with more than 115,000 new wallets, and the sector accounted for roughly a quarter of net inflows into the real-world asset (RWA) category, exceeding the combined expansion of tokenized stocks, corporate bonds and non-U.S. Treasuries.
Trading activity also surged: tokenized gold recorded about $178 billion in 2025 volume and peaked above $126 billion in the fourth quarter. That volume would make it the second-largest gold investment product globally by trading volume, behind SPDR Gold Shares. Market makers and cross-venue liquidity providers dominate participation, arbitraging price differences between digital and traditional markets. Crypto-native macro traders use tokenized gold for bullion exposure as well as collateral, hedging and yield strategies during spikes in geopolitical or macroeconomic uncertainty.
“Some institutions are monitoring weekend onchain gold markets, particularly macro and cross-asset desks that track gap risk ahead of the CME reopen,” Ioppe said, noting most treat the signal as informational more than a basis for active positioning.
Continuous, 24/7 tokenized gold trading offers a practical risk-management advantage. If a geopolitical event occurs while futures markets are closed, traditional participants cannot immediately adjust positions; tokenized markets allow immediate rebalancing. For example, tokenized gold rallied during a Saturday escalation in Middle East tensions following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, with investors moving into XAUT and PAXG while Bitcoin and Ether fell. XAUT briefly climbed above $5,450 and PAXG neared $5,536 before trimming gains, according to CoinMarketCap data.
However, adoption faces obstacles. Liquidity for tokenized gold remains smaller than in futures or ETFs, making large trades harder to execute without moving prices. “Regulatory clarity is improving, but fragmentation across jurisdictions slows institutional deployment. Custody, accounting, and capital rules still vary widely,” Ioppe said.
For now, tokenized gold is expected to operate alongside traditional products rather than replace them. “The most likely near-term evolution is that of tokenized and traditional markets existing in parallel, each serving a different function,” Ioppe concluded.
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