Product-backed cryptocurrencies dominated by gold-backed tokens have seen a historic surge this week.
The leap comes after the Swiss Precious Metals Association warned that a 39% tariff in Switzerland could “harmful” the international flow of physical gold this week after gold futures were traded above $3,500 this week. Both the gold spot and futures fell when White House officials told Bloomberg that the president would introduce a policy that would make it clear that gold imports should not be subject to tariffs.
However, that did not stop the gold-backed tokens from being minted.
The warning also saw gold-based cryptocurrencies, including tether gold
Paxos Gold (PAXG) briefly went up the top of $3,390 before retreating. For each RWA.xyz data, Minting volume reached $439 million in a week, more than double the record of the past $195 million seen in 2021.
These tokens are backed by physical reserves held in safes, allowing investors to touch precious metals and can be instantly chained without crossing boundaries.
Switzerland has improved much of the world’s gold despite its lack of mines, exporting more than $61 billion in metal to the United States over the past year.
The move has sparked political backlash in Switzerland, with some lawmakers urging the money sector to take part in the economic fallout. Precious metals are made up of one-quarter of Switzerland’s exports per data from the Swiss National Bank.