Bitcoin Faces New Rival as Tokenized Gold Surges Past $3 Billion – The Real “Digital Gold”?

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Bitcoin, once crowned as the undisputed heavyweight champion of digital value, now finds itself in a bit of a dust-up with an unlikely opponent: tokenized gold. And, to make matters worse, the shiny yellow metal is bringing centuries of monetary tradition to the ring. How rude.

As the price of gold dances merrily upwards, blockchain-based gold tokens have vaulted themselves past a $3 billion market cap, reigniting the age-old argument of what truly deserves the “digital gold” crown.

Bitcoin Faces Its Oldest Rival Again as Gold Goes On-Chain

Recent developments suggest that the dream of tokenizing physical gold is no longer just a distant, “maybe someday” kind of idea, but a market force with muscles. And gold isn’t even wearing a tuxedo; it’s in a blockchain-powered tank.

In April, Kinka-tucked under the wing of Japan’s proudly finicky fintech company UNBANKED-decided it was high time to put physical gold-backed tokens on the Cardano blockchain, powered by EMURGO’s tokenization engine. Because, of course, gold needs to be high-tech now, too.

Meanwhile, in July, BioSig Technologies and Streamex Exchange Corporation, armed with $1.1 billion in funding, announced their plans to create a gold-backed treasury management platform on Solana. The $142 trillion commodities market, it seems, now has its eyes on the blockchain prize.

And that’s not all, folks. Tether and Antalpha are reportedly raising $200 million to make their very own digital asset treasury centered around Tether Gold (XAUT), backed by precious, vault-stored bullion. Take a deep breath; it’s a lot to unpack.

SmartGold, ever the overachiever, teamed up with Chintai Nexus to tokenize up to $1.6 billion worth of gold from American retirement accounts. Finally, a way to earn DeFi yields without losing that sweet, sweet tax-deferred status. Hooray!

The “Digital Gold” Debate Rekindled

With this surge in tokenized gold, the legendary Bitcoin versus gold debate has once again burst into flames, rekindling old financial rivalries with all the ferocity of a fired-up debate club meeting.

Economist and professional Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff, ever the pessimist, is convinced that tokenized gold will always outshine Bitcoin. After all, who needs a dollar-backed stablecoin when you have the time-tested, glittering allure of gold?

But then there’s Willy Woo, the optimistic Bitcoin advocate, who took to Twitter with a savage clapback, pointing out that while gold tokens like XAUT grew by $1.25 billion since launch, Bitcoin’s market value swelled by a casual $2.2 trillion during the same period. Oh, the humanity!

It’s never too late to leave Fantasy Island and join the real world Peter.

Tether launched tokenised gold 5.5 years ago. In that time it grew $1.25B while BTC grew by $2.2 TRILLION.

Same with ETF wrappers… BTC ETFs saw 10x more demand than gold ETFs when they launched.

– Willy Woo (@woonomic) August 15, 2025

And then there’s Garrett Goggin, founder of Golden Portfolio, who calls tokenized gold “the ultimate currency,” not because he’s been drinking too much of the gold-flavored Kool-Aid, but because it combines the best of both worlds: gold’s trusty store of value and crypto’s spiffy programmability. What could possibly go wrong?

“Tokenized gold is cool, but requires a custodian; thus, counterparty risk is always there. Bitcoin’s removal of counterparty risk was the entire innovation. You must know this by now,” Erik Voorhees, founder of Venice AI, challenged.

Vijay Boyapati, ever the cynic, chimed in with his own take, suggesting that tokenized gold is simply “repackaging the same problem”-namely, centralized custody. After all, who wants a digital asset that still relies on a gatekeeper? Definitely not the blockchain crowd.

Ethereum and Tether Benefit Most

Despite all the philosophical musings, the market is, predictably, rewarding the tokenization trend. With over $2.7 billion worth of tokenized gold now lounging comfortably on Ethereum, it’s clear which blockchain is getting the lion’s share of the gold rush.

🚨JUST IN: Over $2.7 billion worth of tokenized gold now sits on $ETH!

– Ethprofit.eth 🦇🔊 (@Ethprofit) October 7, 2025

Tether Gold (XAUT) remains the poster child of tokenized gold, boasting a market cap north of $1.5 billion. And just to keep things interesting, its price has increased almost 12% in the last month. Because why not?

So, there we have it-tokenized gold and Bitcoin, two very different animals in the digital jungle. One is rooted in physical scarcity, the other in digital trustlessness. But as global demand for hard assets grows, the question of who truly deserves the “digital gold” title is shifting from philosophical debate to cold, hard data.

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2025-10-08 15:10