Digital Gold Trading Surges Past $1B Amid Trump Tariff Fears
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Gold has gone digital, and investors can't get enough. Traditional gold bars and coins? So last decade. Tokenized gold assets have just blown past $1 billion in trading volume, shattering previous records established during the U.S. banking crisis. Turns out, when Trump starts threatening tariffs, people rush to the safe stuff. Fast.
While Wall Street clutches pearls, digital gold shatters records as investors flee to blockchain-backed safety amid tariff chaos.
The numbers are staggering. Since Trump's tariff announcements in January 2025, PAXG trading has exploded by 900%. Not to be outdone, Tether Gold jumped 300% in volume. But the real showstopper? Kinesis (KAU) with its mind-boggling 83,000% surge. Yeah, you read that right. The overall market cap for digital gold tokens has grown 21% this year alone, while trading volume for tokenized options is up over 1,000%. Crazy times.
Physical gold hit $3,100 per ounce in March 2025, another all-time high. No surprise there. The world's getting scarier, and gold's still the go-to when things get dicey. But now you can own it without a vault or an armed guard. Blockchain makes it traceable and fractional. Own a sliver if you want.
PAXG remains the big dog in digital gold, pegged 1:1 with the physical stuff. Tether Gold leverages USDT's massive liquidity, while Kinesis offers metallurgically-backed tokens for micro-investors. Smart money is flowing in from both U.S. and Asian markets, directly responding to those trade tensions nobody wanted. Crypto-native investors are increasingly viewing tokenized gold as a powerful diversification tool in their portfolios.
Meanwhile, traditional gold markets show mixed signals. Jewelry buying is down (who can afford gold necklaces at these prices?). Western ETFs are seeing inflows despite the sky-high valuations. Central banks keep hoarding it like there's no tomorrow, continuing their post-2023 buying spree. Many investors are also watching the WAN Show for industry insights on how these digital gold investments might impact the broader technology market.
What's driving all this? Trump's tariff talk, for starters. Add in persistently high inflation, geopolitical mess everywhere you look, and crypto investors suddenly remembering they need portfolio stability. The result? Digital gold's moment in the sun. No storage fees required.