As global investors continue to debate the Federal Reserve's interest rate path and inflation expectations, a silent financial experiment is unfolding on-chain. Once regarded as the most traditional and conservative safe-haven asset—gold—has now entered the DeFi ecosystem in token form, completing a leap from a "niche attempt" to "hundreds of thousands of users participating" over the past year.
Matrixdock's gold token XAUm has been online for a year, with a market cap exceeding $45 million and over 365,000 cross-chain transactions completed. This is not just a product's growth but a landmark breakthrough in the RWA (Real World Assets) sector.
It signifies a complete reshaping of the "time and space" in financial markets: gold is no longer just a reserve for central banks and institutions but can be bought, sold, and settled by global users 24/7 without borders. This shift pushes gold from being a "hard currency" in traditional finance to a "liquid tool" in the on-chain world, redefining the interface between reality and crypto.
In the context of global financial turmoil, beyond stablecoins, gold is becoming another choice for investors seeking "stability." According to a report released by Dune and RWA.xyz at the 2025 New York RWA Summit, XAUm has issued over 13,200 tokens, with a market cap of about $45 million, and completed 365,000 cross-chain transactions.
Although its scale cannot compare to trillion-dollar stablecoins, it showcases a new path for traditional hard currencies to go on-chain. Unlike stablecoins, gold tokens do not focus on payment as a core function, nor do they emphasize long-term returns like government bond tokenization; instead, they serve as digital gold for hedging and cross-border asset allocation.
Particularly on PancakeSwap of the BNB Chain, which contributed 95% of the trading volume, XAUm's high acceptance in the retail market highlights the availability and popular potential of tokenized gold. This indicates that the significance of gold tokens lies not only in their store of value attributes but also in providing global investors with an always accessible, low-threshold on-chain hedging tool.
The development of RWA is not just a game for institutions; retail participation often determines whether an asset can truly become "financial infrastructure." The Plume network attracted over 61,000 users in 2025, accounting for 87% of XAUm's total holders, with transaction counts exceeding 70% of the overall.
This data shows that gold tokens have found a breakthrough among individual investors, lowering the entry barrier to the gold market. Meanwhile, Matrixdock emphasized three driving forces in the issuance of XAUm: compliance, transparency, and ecosystem.
First, gold reserves are regulated and disclosed by custodial institutions, reducing investor concerns. Second, regular audits and on-chain verification mechanisms resonate with global policy directions, aligning with the gradually clarifying regulatory frameworks in the U.S., EU, Hong Kong, Japan, and other regions. Finally, leveraging Matrixport's ecosystem, XAUm has been widely integrated into trading, cross-chain, and payment scenarios, especially in the Singapore and Hong Kong markets, becoming a bridge product between traditional finance and on-chain applications.
These characteristics indicate that the value of gold tokens is not only as an asset allocation tool but also as an important sample of compliant financial technology experiments.
Although XAUm's one-year achievements are considered "small-scale," they provide a sample for observing the future development of RWA. It reminds the market that the core of competition in RWA is not merely scale but whether it can truly become a sustainable tool for on-chain users through compliance, transparency, and liquidity.
From a more macro perspective, RWA has gradually evolved into the underlying infrastructure of crypto finance: stablecoins continue to play the leading role in payments and liquidity, government bond products meet institutional yield allocation needs, while tokenized assets like gold and stock ETFs provide more diverse financial entry points for individual users and emerging markets.
The value of gold tokens lies in their ability to bring the world's oldest safe-haven tool into a 24/7 programmable financial system, adding a stable anchor point to the on-chain world. Looking ahead, the RWA market may enter a "multipolar" phase: with giant stablecoins controlling scale, and gold and stock tokens providing differentiated scenarios.
The story of gold is far from over; it is both a tool against inflation and a bridge between traditional and crypto. When gold can operate in the form of smart contracts, the boundaries of the global financial system may be redefined.
Related Articles:
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
