When gold surpasses $4,700: How to allocate core assets with "digital vault" in the crypto era?

On January 21, 2026, the spot gold price temporarily surged to a historic high of $4,837 per ounce. Behind this figure lies not only the revaluation of gold as a traditional safe-haven asset but also signals a profound transformation—gold tokenization is becoming a key bridge connecting the crypto world with traditional finance.

According to the latest market data from Gate platform on January 21, 2026, the gold token and contract markets are showing unprecedented vitality. This is not just a technological upgrade but a fundamental restructuring of financial infrastructure.

The Revival of Digital Gold, Redefining the Financial Order of the New World

The global financial markets are undergoing a structural change, with the spot gold price increasing by over 8% since the beginning of the year, rapidly breaking through the $4,400 to $4,800 range. Market analysts believe that the new world order is not only fostering a bull market in stocks but also in gold. Alongside the price surge, a technology-driven evolution of asset forms is taking place. By 2025, the total on-chain RWA (Real-World Assets) scale has soared to $18.6 billion, a 232% year-over-year increase, with gold tokens occupying an absolute majority.

Citigroup predicts that by the 2030s, the tokenized digital securities market will reach $4-5 trillion, with gold holding a significant share.

From Physical Gold Bars to Tokenization: Why Is This a “Dimensionality Reduction Attack”?

There is an essential difference between traditional gold ETFs and gold tokens. Gold tokens are 1:1 pegged “digital receipts” backed by physical gold, allowing holders to redeem real gold from vaults in Switzerland and other locations at any time. In contrast, gold ETFs are merely “profit certificates,” representing an additional digital entry in a broker’s ledger, not direct ownership of physical gold. This fundamental difference brings about a radical transformation in financial attributes.

Physical gold stored in vaults merely gathers dust, whereas gold tokens can generate annualized yields of 3%-12% through DeFi collateralized lending and liquidity mining. This shift from “storage assets” to “interest-earning assets” fundamentally changes the financial value of gold. Gold tokens support 24/7 trading on blockchain, with T+0 settlement, breaking the limitations of traditional exchange opening hours. This global liquidity injects unprecedented trading convenience into gold.

Institutional Entry: The Convergence Point of Traditional Finance and Crypto Gold

Market intuition always leads public opinion. BlackRock’s crypto investment portfolio has surged from $54.77 billion at the beginning of 2024 to $102.09 billion, with significant holdings in gold RWAs.

DBS Bank and Standard Chartered have completed cross-border settlement pilot programs for gold tokens under the MAS framework in Singapore, reducing settlement time from days to minutes. This marks recognition by traditional financial institutions of the practical value of gold tokens.

Regulatory environments are also gradually clarifying. The US “GENIUS Act” in July 2025 provided a clear legal definition for physically-backed tokens. Hong Kong, Japan, and the UAE have introduced new regulations for digital asset custody. Institutional custody platforms like Fireblocks and Copper fully integrated gold tokens such as XAUT and PAXG in 2025, enabling family offices and hedge funds to perform “vault-level” operations via enterprise-grade interfaces.

One-Stop Entry: How Does Gate Simplify Digital Gold Allocation?

In response to the trend of gold tokenization, ordinary investors need not worry about complex procedures. Gate’s TradFi module offers a seamless solution that deeply integrates the crypto world with traditional finance.

Through this innovative feature, users can transfer USDT from their crypto wallets and lock in USD 1:1 to fund traditional financial accounts. The entire process requires no manual conversions or additional fees, enabling automated and transparent fund transfers. Gate TradFi offers a wide range of assets, including gold, silver, forex pairs, major indices, commodities, and popular stock CFDs, now tradable 24/7. This design is especially suitable for investors seeking to hedge crypto volatility, diversify their portfolios, or execute macro strategies.

Risks and Future Opportunities of Gold Tokens

Investing in any emerging asset requires cautious evaluation. Historically, some gold-backed tokens collapsed during the market downturn in 2022, mainly due to opaque physical gold reserves and questionable issuer credentials. Investors should rigorously verify whether the issuer has independent custody trusts, whether they access oracles like Chainlink for 24/7 reserve proof, and whether the legal framework supports physical redemption rights for token holders.

Currently, the gold token market is about $100 million, which is insignificant compared to the overall gold market of $12 trillion. Liquidity depth, tax rules, and cross-jurisdiction redemption costs remain practical barriers. The BIS report highlights that the new generation of financial systems requires three pillars: central bank reserve tokenization, commercial bank deposit tokenization, and high-quality asset tokenization. Gold is the best representative of “high-quality assets.”

The current size of the gold token market accounts for only a tiny fraction of the $12 trillion gold market. This small proportion is both a reflection of the current state and a sign of enormous future growth potential. From DBS’s settlement pilot to BlackRock’s asset allocation, institutional capital is flowing into this field at an unprecedented speed. On the Gate platform, the boundaries between traditional finance and the crypto world are dissolving—just one account allows users to access gold, stocks, and crypto assets simultaneously. When the spot gold price breaks through $4,800 in January 2026, history once again proves the resilience of this millennium-old asset. Now, blockchain technology adds liquidity and programmability to this resilience. This time, history has chosen “digital gold” as the next form of value storage.