Cryptocurrency exchange BTCC has captured a significant wave of investor demand for gold trading on blockchain networks, with annual trading volume of tokenized gold exceeding the $5.7 billion mark during 2025.
The surge reflects a broader institutional shift toward “real-world assets” — traditional investments such as commodities and precious metals converted into digital tokens — as traders increasingly see gold as a hedge against geopolitical uncertainty and market turmoil.
This milestone highlights how crypto platforms are evolving beyond pure digital currencies into full-fledged alternatives to traditional commodity trading.
Gold’s explosive growth outpaces broader crypto market
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The numbers tell an amazing story.
BTCC’s gold trading volume surged 809% from Q1 to Q4 of 2025, generating $2.74 billion in Q4 alone, nearly half of the year’s total.
It’s not a gradual growth. It is a market acceleration caused by a true structural change in the way traders access precious metals.
What is also becoming clearer is the dominance of gold within the BTCC ecosystem.
The exchange processed a total of $53.1 billion in futures transactions across all asset classes in 2025, with tokenized gold accounting for 10.7% of that pie.
In the fourth quarter alone, gold product volumes increased 130% sequentially.
More importantly, this sector is the fastest growing, expanding approximately eight times over the year. By way of background, few asset classes on crypto platforms achieve such growth rates without fundamental catalysts.
Why gold? Macro headwinds and policy uncertainty
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BTCC product manager Marcus Chen said the rally was due to “gold’s rally driven by geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty.”
As gold prices reach record highs, our tokenized product will enable users to trade precious metals and cryptocurrencies directly on the BTCC platform.
Gold prices rose towards record highs throughout 2025 as investors hedged against risks such as trade wars, regional conflicts and unpredictable central bank policy.
Gold has historically been a safe harbor when traditional markets feel volatile.
BTCC leveraged this to offer three different tokenized gold products. GOLDUSDT for spot price exposure, PAXGUSDT backed by Paxos’ regulated physical gold tokens, and XAUTUSDT linked to Tether’s on-chain gold products.
Diversity is important. Different products have different trader preferences. Some seek pure price exposure, others seek the security of physical backing, and still others require on-chain liquidity for decentralized financial activities.
The BTCC results hint at where the crypto industry is headed.
Regulators and institutional investors have long required crypto platforms to offer “real” assets – those with tangible value outside the digital realm.
Tokenized products do just that. The exchange hinted at greater ambitions to come.
“Gold is just the beginning,” Chen said, adding that BTCC is exploring other products and traditional financial products.
We are actively working on expanding into other products and traditional financial products. With what we have built here, BTCC is poised to bring tokenization to a broader range of assets and make them accessible to traders everywhere.
Diversification could be crucial in attracting mainstream capital to the crypto industry, which is still fighting for legitimacy.
