Products near $4B as gold extends all-time rally
Blockchain-based products are approaching the $4 billion milestone as the world's leading precious metal reaches its peak.
Gold, silver and platinum hit record highs on Friday, with spot gold rising to $4,530 an ounce, TradingView data showed. Silver, not contributing much to the currently tight commodity market, briefly touched an all-time high of $74.56 an ounce.
Tokenized commodities rose 11% in the month leading up to Friday, reaching $3.93 billion, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz. Tether Gold (XOUT) is listed as the largest tokenized commodity with a value of $1.74 billion, followed by Pax Gold (PAXG) at $1.61 billion.
Precious metals can be transferred and traded on-chain outside of traditional market hours, although price, liquidity and redemption are tied to the existing infrastructure.
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Tokenized commodities are part of the broader Real World Asset (RWA) sector, which includes blockchain-based representation of traditional assets to enable rapid settlement and fractional ownership.
Investment bank Standard Chartered predicts that RWAs (excluding stablecoins) will rise to $2 trillion by 2028, with $250 billion flowing into “less liquid” investments such as private equity and commodities.
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Ethereum will take the lion's share of RWA tokenization growth
Ethereum has emerged as the most popular blockchain network for tokenized RWAs.
It commands a 65% market share at $12.7 billion, with BNB Chain in second place at 10.5% or $1.85 billion, according to data from RWA.xyz.
Growth in tokenization may contribute to increased blockchain activity and transaction fees on Ethereum.
However, blockchain data shows that traditional tokenization of financial assets still represents a relatively small share of onchain activity compared to more established use cases such as stable science and virtual token trading.
Ethereum ranked fourth in total transaction fees in the past 30 days, generating $11.41 million, according to data from crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
The Tron network, which dominates the stablecoin movement, took first place with a payout of $29.5 million. BNB Chain and Solana came second and third respectively. The two blockchains are popular for token startups and retail businesses.
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