Gold ETFs and Tokenized Gold Diverge in First Quarter of 2026

Gold ETFs are a traditional vehicle through which institutions and retail investors gain exposure to physical gold. Tokenized gold products such as Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos' PAXG bring rights to gold bars on-chain and enable round-the-clock trading. First-quarter 2026 data from the World Gold Council and CoinGecko show that interest rates, safe-haven demand and Web3 liquidity are jointly reshaping the gold investment landscape.

The World Gold Council said on April 8 that global physically backed gold ETFs posted a record $12 billion in outflows in March. Selling pressure in North America reduced first-quarter net inflows to $12 billion, with Asian buying partly offsetting the withdrawals. CoinGecko said tokenized gold generated $90.7 billion in spot trading volume during the quarter, surpassing the $84.6 billion recorded for all of 2025. A separate analysis on April 9 estimated that market capitalization rose from $5.9 billion to $7.37 billion, while on-chain penetration remained at just 0.66%.