Tokenised gold markets such as PAXG and XAUt are now responsible for virtually all publicly visible gold price discovery when CME futures close from Friday evening to Sunday, according to Theo chief investment officer Iggy Ioppe.
CME gold futures halt trading at 5:00 pm ET on Friday and reopen at 6:00 pm ET on Sunday, leaving blockchain-based gold tokens among the few continuously traded instruments reflecting bullion prices during that window.
“In terms of publicly visible price formation, onchain markets are responsible for virtually 100% of weekend price discovery,”
Said Iggy Ioppe, chief investment officer at Theo.
The tokenised gold sector has expanded rapidly, with market capitalisation rising from about $1.6 billion to $4.4 billion over the past year, a 177% increase that outpaced much of the broader gold market and exceeded the combined growth of tokenised stocks, corporate bonds and non-US Treasurys.
Trading volume reached approximately $178 billion in 2025, peaking above $126 billion in the fourth quarter, which would rank tokenised gold behind only SPDR Gold Shares globally by volume among gold investment products.
On Saturday, tokenised gold rallied amid geopolitical tensions following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, with XAUT briefly topping $5,450 and PAXG nearing $5,536 while bitcoin and ether declined, and following the announcement the Theo share price was unchanged at $N/A.
Ioppe said that while liquidity remains thinner than in futures or ETFs and regulatory fragmentation continues to slow institutional deployment, tokenised gold is likely to operate alongside traditional markets, offering 24/7 risk management rather than replacing established gold investment vehicles.