Why Investors Are Turning to XAUT: Market Analysis and Gold Forecast Through 2026
Gold has been an incredible performer this 12 months. During its 2025 rally, the gold value has damaged the $3,000 and $4,000 milestones for the primary time in historical past.
The valuable steel is up roughly 60% since January 1, 2025.
Gold vs. Bitcoin
Bitcoin, which many argue is gold’s digital counterpart, hasn’t been doing so sizzling. In the identical timeframe, the value of the most important cryptocurrency declined by 5%.
In gentle of this, it’s fairly ironic that the very know-how Bitcoin pioneered is now getting used to make funding publicity to gold extra accessible than ever.
What is Tether Gold (XAUT)?
Gold-backed crypto tokens like Tether Gold (XAUT) permit anybody throughout the globe to immediately add gold to their portfolio (with some caveats that we’ll clarify later).
XAUT is a gold-backed token issued by Tether, which additionally points the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT. Conceptually, XAUT is analogous to the dollar-pegged stablecoins crypto buyers are already carefully aware of. Each XAUT token in circulation is backed by one superb troy ounce of gold held by Tether.
XAUT is accessible as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, and may be purchased on a wide range of centralized exchanges and DEXes.
The tokens may be straight redeemed for bodily gold, however that is solely related for a small variety of buyers in apply. This is since you want to have 1 gold bar’s value of XAUT tokens to redeem your tokens straight for bodily gold. Tether says shoppers who need to redeem for bodily gold ought to deposit a minimum of 430 XAUT ($1.8 million at present costs).
Tether launched XAUT in 2020, shortly after Paxos launched PAXG in September 2019. At the time of writing, XAUT tokenizes roughly $2.1 billion value of gold. The second-largest gold-backed token, PAXG, just isn’t too far behind with a market cap of $1.4 billion.
It’s value highlighting that Tether is among the many 30 largest gold holders on the earth, and owns roughly 116 tons of the dear steel. However, solely a portion of those reserves is getting used to again XAUT, as the quantity of tokens in circulation corresponds to about 16.2 tons of gold (1,329 gold bars).
Why are buyers selecting XAUT?
XAUT is likely one of the best methods to get publicity to gold as an funding, particularly if you’re already within the crypto ecosystem. All you want is an Ethereum-compatible pockets with some funds, and you should buy XAUT inside seconds on a DEX like Uniswap.
When shopping for XAUT on Uniswap, I had the identical type of “aha second” that I first bought after I simply bought began with crypto. The realization that I simply added some gold to my portfolio in seconds with out KYC or different tedious processes jogged my memory that blockchain does certainly allow some very cool issues already, regardless of the group consistently lamenting the shortage of adoption.
You can, in fact, additionally promote XAUT as simply as you should buy it, which is far more handy than the method of promoting bodily gold. This makes it one of the vital extremely liquid strategies of getting publicity to gold. The marketplace for XAUT is open 24/7, and anybody throughout the globe can entry it immediately thanks to decentralized exchanges.
Another benefit of XAUT is its divisibility. With XAUT, you will get publicity to as little as 0.000001 ounces of gold, making it actually accessible to everybody.
What to have in mind when shopping for gold-backed tokens like XAUT
While gold-backed tokens like XAUT are a particularly handy means to spend money on gold, holding them isn’t fairly the identical as holding bodily gold.
Most importantly, these tokens include counterparty threat. Gold-backed tokens are finally primarily based on belief within the issuer (for instance, Tether for XAUT) to preserve the gold reserves, preserve them correctly secured, and honor redemptions. If the custodian fails financially, acts dishonestly, or can now not entry the bullion, the tokens might drop in worth, otherwise you is probably not ready to recuperate that worth in any respect.
On high of that, the on-chain infrastructure introduces its personal set of dangers: hacks, technical flaws, or sensible contract malfunctions might lock you out of your tokens or trigger the token provide to drift from what’s really held in reserve.
Converting tokens again into bodily gold or money isn’t at all times easy. Redemptions can include minimal thresholds, additional prices, and geographic or authorized constraints, and in unstable situations, the issuer might pause or gradual redemptions. Meanwhile, proudly owning bodily gold offers you direct management as you possibly can retailer it your self and promote it everytime you select.
In this text, we principally targeted our consideration on XAUT, because it’s the most well-liked gold-backed token. However, it’s value mentioning that PAXG is functionally very related, and the selection between the 2 actually simply comes down to which issuer you belief extra (Tether or Paxos).
What’s subsequent for gold: Investors anticipate new value data in 2026
Gold in 2025 has lived up to its repute as a “protected haven” and has confirmed to be one of the vital profitable investments. Its rise was pushed by a uncommon mixture of things: decrease rates of interest and actual yields, heightened geopolitical and commerce uncertainty, a noticeable weakening of the U.S. greenback, and regular demand from central banks.
The algorithmic gold price forecast from CoinCodex, which relies on the asset’s value historical past, volatility, and broader market developments, anticipates that gold will proceed rallying all through 2026 and hit a peak at round $6,400.
While this forecast is extraordinarily bullish, CoinCodex isn’t alone in projecting that the gold price will proceed to hit new all-time highs in 2026.
Major funding financial institution Goldman Sachs not too long ago conducted a survey of 900 institutional investor shoppers, and 36% of them predict that gold will hit $5,000 in 2026. Meanwhile, 33% of the respondents offered a extra conservative prediction that gold will attain between $4,500 and $5,000, which might additionally lead to new all-time highs (the present document is at round $4,377).
Daan Struyven, head of commodity analysis at Goldman Sachs, has offered a $4,900 value goal, citing central financial institution demand and continued Fed charge cuts as key drivers that can lead to increased gold costs.
Meanwhile, analysts at each JPMorgan and HSBC anticipate the gold value to surpass $5,000 subsequent 12 months.
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