Bodily gold costs climbed to their highest stage in a month as safe-haven demand spiked amid escalating geopolitical tensions.
On the identical time, the transfer into bullion is spilling into digital markets. On-chain knowledge exhibits a surge within the accumulation of tokenized gold belongings.
Gold Costs Advance as Traders Search Security
Gold rose 2% on March 2, reaching an intraday excessive of $5,394 per ounce, its highest stage since January 30. At press time, the worth had adjusted to $5,363.7.
Gold Value on March 2. Supply: TradingView
The catalyst was direct: US and Israeli strikes on Iran sparked safe-haven flows into treasured metals throughout world markets. Monday’s flare-up injected further momentum into the dear metallic’s broader rally. Gold has delivered notable returns, rising roughly 65% in 2025 alone.
For crypto members, the timing mattered. With digital asset markets concurrently experiencing renewed volatility, tokenized gold supplied a path to protect gold publicity with out counting on conventional finance rails.
Main Purchases Spotlight Tokenized Gold Demand
On-chain analytics agency Lookonchain recognized an inactive pockets that spent $1 million USDC to purchase PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) tokens. The deal with, labeled 0x1C70, carried out a number of swaps over a number of hours and nonetheless holds $4 million USDC.
“The wallet still holds 4M USDC and may buy more,” Lookonchain stated.
Moreover, an Ethereum whale rotated holdings from ETH into XAUT whereas accepting a realized loss. OnchainLens reported that the pockets (0x744b) swapped 1,000 ETH, valued at $1.94 million, for 358.49 XAUT at $5,413, incurring a lack of over $60,000.
“Over the past 2 years, the whale received 1,645 ETH for $3.26 million and still holds 645 ETH ($1.25 million),” the publish learn.
In the meantime, London-based asset supervisor Abraxas Capital Administration’s gold holdings additionally rose. An on-chain analyst, citing knowledge from blockchain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence, reported that the agency acquired 28,723 XAUT tokens, valued at $151 million, from Tether’s treasury. The switch marked the most important XAUT transaction recorded up to now three weeks.
“Interesting fact: Heka Funds (Abraxas Capital) is one of Tether’s largest and most important institutional clients. At one point, it held 1.5% of the total USDT supply. Among Tether’s publicly disclosed on-chain address clusters, it currently ranks as the second-largest entity by interaction volume,” the analyst added.
The rise in tokenized gold accumulation corresponds with higher curiosity in different shops of worth inside crypto. Traders might favor gold-backed tokens for value stability and potential good points linked to metals markets, whereas risking much less from the volatility typical of many digital belongings.
BeInCrypto just lately reported that the tokenized gold sector has recorded important growth, with its market capitalization now exceeding $6 billion. Moreover, in response to CoinGecko, day by day buying and selling volumes for each XAUT and PAXG surpassed $1 billion yesterday, signaling robust investor demand.
Whether or not this can be a short-term flight to security or marks a sustained transfer towards commodity-backed digital tokens stays a query as March 2026 progresses and extra on-chain knowledge emerges.
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