The market cap for tokenized gold reached an unprecedented $1.4 billion in March, with trading volumes experiencing significant spikes, according to a monthly report on stablecoins.
This surge in market value and activity coincided with the physical gold’s ascent to new record highs, surpassing $3,000 per ounce. Among the leading products, Tether’s gold-backed token (XAUT) and Paxos’ PAXG stand out, boasting market caps of $749 million and $653 million, respectively.
Throughout the month, trading volume involving gold tokens exceeded $1.6 billion, marking the highest figure seen in over a year, based on the report’s findings.
The total stablecoin market, comprising tokens tied to fiat currencies and commodities, surpassed $231 billion in market cap this month, marking an 18th consecutive month of growth, according to the analysis.
Tether’s USDT, the preeminent stablecoin, also reached a historical supply of $144 billion. However, its market share has dipped to its lowest point (62.1%) since March 2023 as competition in the stablecoin arena intensifies. Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, saw a 7% increase over the month, nearing a cap of $60 billion.
The recently introduced dollar stablecoin, USDtb, from the decentralized finance protocol Ethena, which utilizes BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL as a reserve asset, quickly amassed over $1 billion in assets, becoming the eighth largest by market capitalization.
Regarding trading volumes on centralized exchanges, USDT’s dominance experienced a slight decline but remained above its competition at 75.7% among the top ten stablecoins for the month. Conversely, USDC and First Digital’s FDUSD, based in Hong Kong, saw their market cap dominance rise to 13.6% and 10%, respectively.
Regulatory changes have been transforming the sector of euro-pegged stablecoins, as exchanges adapted to align with the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. Kraken has removed listings for USDT and other non-compliant stablecoins for European clients, following similar actions taken by exchanges like Coinbase and Crypto.com.
Circle’s EURC stablecoin notably benefited from these developments, experiencing nearly a 30% growth to reach a market cap of $157 million, thereby capturing 45% of the entire euro stablecoin market.