Gold Is 30% Off Its Peak, Yet Tether Gold’s Supply Is Up 55% in a Year

Gold has had a bruising year since its January peak, but the blockchain version of the metal keeps attracting buyers. Tether Gold, the largest gold-backed token, now has about 809,000 tokens in circulation, each tied to one troy ounce, up roughly 55% from a year ago.

That growth came even as the token’s price fell about 30% from its high. The pattern suggests that many holders treat gold on a blockchain as a long-term store of value rather than a short-term trade.

Tokenized gold is still a small market. The 10 largest gold-backed tokens are worth about $5.5 billion combined, according to CoinGecko data on Nov. 15. Bitcoin, by comparison, carries a market value of about $1.32 trillion.

Tether Gold Leads a $5.5 Billion Market

Two tokens dominate the sector. Tether Gold (XAUT) is worth about $3.10 billion and PAX Gold (PAXG) about $1.71 billion. Together they account for roughly 87% of the top 10.

The next largest, Kinesis Gold, is worth about $350 million. After that, values drop quickly, with no other token above $110 million.

Tether Gold’s market value rose from about $2.12 billion a year earlier, a gain of roughly 46%. Because the gold price fell over the same period, almost all of that increase came from new tokens rather than higher prices.

On Ethereum, the main network for both tokens, the contracts we queried directly showed a total supply of about 827,000 XAUT and 443,000 PAXG on Nov. 15. The figures differ slightly from circulating supply estimates, which can exclude tokens held by issuers.

Gold Fell About 30% From Its January High

Both major tokens topped out on Jan. 29, 2026. PAX Gold peaked near $5,496 per token and Tether Gold near $5,487. Each now trades around $3,826, roughly 30% below those highs.

That decline makes the supply data more interesting. A token’s market value can grow simply because its underlying asset rises. When value grows while the price falls, it means more ounces have been placed on chain.

The year also had a different shape for each token. CoinGecko’s daily history for Tether Gold shows a few one-day jumps in reported supply that quickly reversed, so we focus on its start and end points rather than the path in between.

PAX Gold Kept Most of Its Gains

PAX Gold offers a cleaner view of how demand evolved through the year. Its supply climbed from about 333,000 ounces in mid-November 2025 to a peak above 514,000 in late March, as the gold rally accelerated.

Each PAXG token represents one fine troy ounce of gold held in professional vaults, and holders can redeem tokens for the metal itself or for cash. That makes changes in supply a direct read on net buying and selling.

Some holders redeemed as prices slid through the spring and summer. Supply bottomed near 433,000 ounces in mid-September, then started to climb again, reaching about 448,000 by Nov. 15.

The result is a token that is still about 34% larger than a year ago, despite giving back about 13% of its supply from the March high. Holders have largely stayed put through a 30% drawdown.

What This Tells Us About Digital Stores of Value

We think the steady demand says something useful about how investors now view blockchains. People are increasingly comfortable holding a traditional safe-haven asset in tokenized form, settled around the clock and moved without a bank or a vault visit.

That shift lines up with what we have seen elsewhere. Stablecoins have grown to 21% of Bitcoin’s market value, and banks in Hong Kong have begun settling tokenized deposits 24/7. Large endowments have also been weighing both assets, as Harvard’s latest filing showed when its gold bet tripled while its Bitcoin ETF stake held steady.

For Bitcoin, the comparison is encouraging. Tokenized gold depends on custodians, vault audits and issuers who can freeze or redeem tokens. Bitcoin needs none of that, and its market is about 240 times larger than the entire gold-token sector.

In our view, every investor who learns to hold gold on a blockchain also learns how self-custody, wallets and on-chain settlement work. That familiarity tends to make the step toward Bitcoin, often called digital gold, a shorter one.

What to Watch Next

The figures carry caveats. Market data providers estimate circulating supply differently, and Tether Gold’s daily supply history contains short-lived anomalies. Token values also move with the gold price, so a rebound or further slide in the metal will shape the next set of numbers.

The key signal to follow is supply in ounces, not market value. If issuance keeps rising while gold remains well below its January peak, it would confirm that on-chain gold has become a lasting part of the digital asset market, alongside the Bitcoin network that made the idea possible.