According to Iggy Ioppe, former chief investment officer at Credit Suisse and now chief investment officer (CIO) at liquidity infrastructure firm Theo, after the US futures markets close at the end of the week, gold prices are determined on blockchain networks.
CME gold futures close at 5:00 PM ET on Friday and reopen at 6:00 PM ET on Sunday. During this period, regulated futures markets are inactive and most of the remaining activity occurs through private over-the-counter deals in Asia that are not publicly reported. As a result, tokenized gold assets such as PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUt) become the only continuously available trading venues.
“In terms of publicly visible price formation, onchain markets account for almost 100% of weekend price discovery,” Ioppe told Cointelegraph.
He added that when futures trading resumes, prices are often consistent with movements that have already occurred in blockchain markets. “We’re looking at weekend moves when the CME reopens,” he said.
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Tokenized gold market cap reaches $4.4 billion.
This change comes amid an increase in tokenized gold trading volume. As Cointelegraph reported, tokenized gold expanded rapidly over the past year, increasing in value by about $2.8 billion and growing in market capitalization from about $1.6 billion to $4.4 billion.
The sector’s market cap grew 177 percent, outperforming the broader gold market and the largest spot gold ETF, while the number of holders nearly tripled with 115,000 new wallets. The growth represents nearly a quarter of all net income in the real world asset (RWA) sector and is greater than the expansion of tokenized stocks, corporate bonds and non-US Treasuries combined.
Trading activity also picked up, with tokenized gold recorded at around $178 billion in 2025 volume and up from $126 billion in the fourth quarter. This level would make it the second largest gold investment product globally by trading volume after SPDR Gold Shares.
Market makers and cross-venue liquidity providers dominate participation by arbitrating price differences between digital and traditional markets, Ioppe said. Crypto-local macro traders also play an important role, using tokenized gold not only to reflect bullion prices, but also for collateral, hedging and yield strategies during geopolitical or macroeconomic uncertainty.
“Some institutions are monitoring the on-chain gold markets over the weekend, particularly the macro and cross-asset desks that track gap risk ahead of the CME reopening,” he said, noting that most institutions consider the signal informative rather than the basis for active positioning.
Related: Tensions in the Middle East boost gold as investors seek safe havens.
24/7 tokenized gold trading lets investors manage risk.
Tokenized gold markets allow continuous trading, which offers a practical risk management advantage. If a geopolitical event occurs while the futures markets are closed, traditional participants cannot adjust positions. Tokenized markets allow for immediate rebalancing.
On Saturday, tokenized gold rose as geopolitical tensions rose following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, with investors moving into XAUT and PAXG while Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fell. According to data from CoinMarketCap, XAUT briefly climbed above $5,450 and PAXG neared $5,536.
However, Ioppe said adoption still faces hurdles. Liquidity tends to be smaller than that of futures or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), making it difficult to execute large trades without changing prices. “Regulatory clarity is improving, but fragmentation across jurisdictions slows institutional deployment. Custody, accounting, and capital rules still vary widely,” he said.
For now, tokenized gold is expected to work alongside traditional products rather than replace them. “The most likely closest evolution is to tokenized and traditional marketplaces existing in parallel, each performing a different function,” Ioppe concluded.
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