As the CME futures close, the token gold controls the weekend’s price discovery
According to Teo, former chief investment officer at Credit Suisse and now chief investment officer (CIO) at liquid infrastructure firm Teo, when US futures markets close for the weekend, gold prices will shift to blockchain networks.
CME gold futures will end trading at 5:00 pm ET on Friday and open at 6:00 pm ET on Sunday. During that period, regulated futures markets are inactive and most of the remaining activity is done through private sell order agreements in Asia that are not publicly reported. As a result, gold assets such as PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUt) have become the only continuously available trading positions.
“In terms of publicly visible price formation, on-chain markets are responsible for 100% of the weekend's price discovery,” Ipe told Cointelegraph.
He added that as futures trades continue, prices often align with movements in blockchain markets. “We're seeing weekend activity reflected as the CME reopens,” he said.
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The market value of gold rose to $4.4 billion.
The transition comes as trading volume for tokenized gold increases. According to Cointelegraph, tokenized gold expanded rapidly last year, adding nearly $2.8 billion in value and growing from $1.6 billion to $4.4 billion in market capitalization.
The sector's market cap rose 177 percent, far outpacing the gold market and major gold ETFs, and the number of holders tripled to more than 115,000 new wallets. The growth represents roughly a quarter of all net inflows into the real world asset (RWA) sector, outpacing the combined expansion of tokenized stocks, corporate bonds and non-US financial resources.
Trading activity increased, with gold recorded at around $178 billion in 2025 volume and more than $126 billion in the fourth quarter. That ranking makes it the largest gold investment product globally by trade, second only to SPDR Gold shares.
Ioppe said market makers and cross-platform liquidity providers will regulate participation by smoothing price differences between digital and traditional markets. Crypto-native macro traders also play an important role, not only for exposing tokenized gold to bullion prices, but also for hedging, hedging and yield strategies during geopolitical or macroeconomic instability.
“Some institutions monitor the weekend on-chain gold markets, especially the macro and cross-asset desks that monitor gap risk ahead of the CME open,” he said, noting that most institutions view the signal as informative rather than a basis for active positioning.
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24/7 alternative gold trading allows investors to control risk
Tokenized gold markets allow continuous trading, which provides practical risk management benefits. If a geopolitical event occurs while futures markets are closed, traditional participants cannot adjust positions. Tokenized markets allow instant balancing.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fell as investors flocked to XAUT and PAXG as geopolitical tensions escalated following US and Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday. XAUT briefly rose above $5,450 and PAXG reached $5,536 before paring its intraday gains.
However, Ioppe said adoption still faces hurdles. Liquidity remains less than futures or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), making it difficult to execute large trades without cost. “Regulatory transparency is improving, but regional fragmentation reduces institutional distribution. Regulatory, accounting and capital laws still differ widely,” he said.
Currently, tokenized gold is expected to work alongside, rather than replace, traditional commodities. “The most recent evolution is that tokenized and traditional markets are parallel, each serving a different function,” Ipe concluded.
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