The international market maker Wintermute has announced the launch of over-the-counter (OTC) trading of tokenized gold, specifically the digital assets PAXG and XAUT, aimed at institutional clients. Organizations can now buy and sell these tokens for major fiat currencies as well as popular cryptocurrencies such as USDT and USDC.
This is reported by Finway
Features of PAXG and XAUT Tokens
PAXG from Paxos and XAUT from Tether are stablecoins pegged to the value of one troy ounce of gold at a 1:1 ratio. Unlike dollar-pegged stablecoins that are backed by cash or securities, PAXG and XAUT are fully backed by physical gold. As of April 2025, XAUT was backed by over 7 tons of gold stored in Swiss vaults. The market capitalization of these tokens stands at $2.2 billion for PAXG and $2.5 billion for XAUT.
By the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the total trading volume of tokenized gold surpassed $126 billion, exceeding the combined trading volume of the five largest gold ETFs. This indicates a significant increase in interest in such digital assets among major players in the financial market.
Wintermute’s Development Strategy
Wintermute’s new solution allows OTC transactions with PAXG and XAUT not only in pairs with cryptocurrencies but also with fiat currencies. This option is available exclusively to institutional investors. The company notes that this move is driven by high demand for gold, which is trading near historical highs, and the desire to provide additional liquidity to the tokenized gold market.
By early February 2026, the total assets under management (AUM) in the tokenized gold segment exceeded $6 billion, with a significant portion of this amount attributed to PAXG and XAUT. Wintermute CEO Yevhen Haievyi emphasized in a conversation with CNBC that the market structure has changed in recent years: a significant portion of liquidity has shifted from crypto exchanges and platforms like Binance to traditional financial instruments and Bitcoin ETFs. This has also influenced the increased demand for tokenized gold, which is increasingly used for hedging risks during periods of market volatility.
“We are witnessing gold undergo the same infrastructural evolution that transformed the currency market into the largest in the world. Gold is now following this scenario, and we expect the tokenized gold market to reach $15 billion by 2026 as institutional adoption accelerates,” the publication quotes him as saying.
It is worth noting that Wintermute analysts had previously expressed forecasts regarding the reasons for the cryptocurrency market decline and further volatility.