I’ve been looking into the stablecoin ecosystem on-chain and found a very interesting track: digitizing traditional precious metals with blockchain technology. Put simply, these are crypto assets pegged to gold and silver, and each token is backed by real metal.

I noticed that the two most active projects in the market are XAUT and PAXG. XAUT is currently priced at around $4.62K—each token represents one ounce of real gold stored in a secure vault. PAXG, on the other hand, is a gold token issued by Paxos, priced at about $4.64K as well. It’s stored in certified vaults in London, and holders can redeem physical gold at any time. Compared with bank-level transparency and organization, this really gives investors more confidence.

Although silver-pegged tokens aren’t as popular as gold ones, there are also some new projects exploring this area, and the market potential is quite significant.

The advantages of this kind of asset compared with traditional cryptocurrencies are quite clear. First is price stability—unlike Bitcoin, which can drop 20% in a day, metal-pegged tokens basically track the global prices of gold and silver, with relatively mild volatility. Second is convenience—you don’t need to physically store a bunch of real gold in a vault; just holding the token is enough. There’s no barrier to global trading, and you can buy and sell on exchanges at any time. Blockchain transparency makes every transaction traceable, and you can also verify that these tokens truly have real assets backing them.

That said, you should definitely make sure you understand a few points before investing. First, confirm whether the project team has actually stored gold or silver in certified vaults—this information must be transparent and publicly disclosed. Second, some projects charge storage fees or withdrawal fees, and these costs need to be included. Third, regulatory rules for crypto assets differ across countries, so it’s best to learn about local policies before investing. Fourth, although this kind of silver backed cryptocurrency and gold-pegged tokens are relatively stable, macro factors such as changes in the global economy and geopolitical conflicts can still affect precious metal prices.

Overall, this is a solid idea that combines traditional assets with digital assets. For investors who want to preserve value and also enjoy the convenience of blockchain, these kinds of tokens are definitely worth researching. But don’t blindly follow the trend—make sure you do your own homework and choose projects with high transparency and good reputations. You can also trade these gold-related assets on Gate—if you’re interested, you can check out the live market data.