Last Updated on February 11, 2026 by Deon
A vast majority of this growth is being carried by two big players that are essentially became the biggest on-ramps from physical vaults to digital wallets:
Tether Gold (XAU₮): The leading market player as it climbed recently to a $3.6 billion market cap.
PAX Gold (PAXG): Another token that has increased in value to a $2.3 billion market cap, this one is issued by Paxos.
Combined, the two make up more than 95% of the commodity token market. For many traders, these tokens have become the new way to hold gold: With 24/7 liquidity and fractional ownership — so that someone can buy $10 worth of the metal without paying the high premiums on physical coins.
Tether’s “Gold. com” Power Play
Tether isn’t just printing tokens; it’s creating a vertically integrated empire. On 5th February 2026, Tether Publish the Strategic Investment of $150M in Gold. com (extremely bold precious metals website).
The Vision: Tether wants to make XAU₮ fully compatible with Gold. com infrastructure.
Physical-to-Digital Bridge: At some point they hope to allow customers to purchase physical gold bars or coins with stablecoins like USDT, in turn creating a bridge between the digital world and real gold.
Leases & Yield: The partnership is exploring “gold leasing” applications that offers the possibility of generating yield on gold investments, from thing which has historically been a “dead” asset to an active one.
Standard Chartered’s $2 Trillion Prediction
The current market, which stands at $6 billion, could be just the “tip of the iceberg.” Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s head of emerging market currency and rates strategy, has made an incredibly bullish (not to mention bold) prediction for the next three years:
The Goal: $2 Trillion in Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs) by 2028.
The Catalyst: Kendrick says that as U.S.-based regulations (such as the Clarity Act) are finalized by 2026, institutional cash is going to flow into tokenized money-market funds and commodities.
Ethereum as the ”Mainnet”: The bank anticipates the bulk of this one trillion dollar turnover to take place on the Ethereum blockchain because it has a 10 year history of having never gone down.
Why It Matters for the Average Investor
The “Tokenization of Everything” is addressing the two most long-standing problems in gold investing: Access and Speed.
Regular GoldTokenized Gold (RWA)High minimums on regular commodities, hard to buy $50 of a 1oz bar. Fractional: Get as little as 0.0001 oz.Storage Complications: You’ll need a safe or bank box. Digital Custody: In audited, insured vaults. Slow Transaction: Sell for cash and delivery of cash. Instant: Exchange on an open market in seconds.
The Bottom Line
Although the technical and “law” plumbing is still getting built out, 2026’s new influx shows that the “Digital Gold” narrative is changing. No longer simply an inflation hedge, on the blockchain gold is set to become programmable, liquid and readily available as aliberal tool for the modern age.
