Gold’s record-breaking rally is boosting tokenized versions of the precious metal, reflecting continued investor appetite for defensive assets amid lingering macro uncertainty.
Tether Gold (XAUT), the largest gold-backed token by market value, surged to a new all-time high of $4,425. Pax Gold (PAXG) and Kinesis Gold (KAU) also climbed, lifting the combined market capitalization of gold-backed tokens to roughly $4.38 billion.
“Investors are clearly still hedging macro risk rather than aggressively pursuing high-risk assets,” said Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, in an email. “This divergence continues to temper broader crypto enthusiasm, even as liquidity conditions improve.”
Bitcoin — often dubbed “digital gold” — rose to around $89,800, benefiting from a weaker U.S. dollar and gains in technology stocks that lifted Asian equity markets. Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics advanced, helping ease concerns over an overheated AI trade. S&P 500 futures rose roughly 0.3%, suggesting a positive U.S. open.
Despite these gains, a sustained crypto recovery remains uncertain as institutional flows cool. According to CoinShares, global digital asset investment products saw net outflows of $952 million last week, marking the first weekly outflow in four weeks.
Derivatives Overview
Stabilizing spot prices have yet to drive renewed risk-taking in derivatives markets. Futures activity is mixed: BTC, ETH, HYPE, and BNB saw modest increases in open interest over 24 hours, while other major tokens experienced outflows.
Leveraged BTC long positions on Bitfinex continue to rise — a trend historically associated with prolonged bearish phases. BTC’s 30-day implied volatility remains around 45%, reflecting muted trading activity, while ETH’s 30-day implied volatility has declined to 70%, its lowest level since October 9.
On the CME, open interest in BTC futures dropped below 120,000 BTC for the first time since early 2024, highlighting reduced institutional participation. In perpetual markets, BCH, SHIB, WLFI, and TON are showing negative funding rates, signaling a bias toward short positions, while funding for major tokens remains modestly positive.
Options activity on Deribit is mixed. BTC block trades included both call and put spreads, whereas ETH traders favored calendar spreads. Overall, BTC and ETH puts continue to trade at a premium to calls, although the downside skew has slightly eased since Friday.
Token Governance: Curve DAO
Curve DAO has rejected a proposal to allocate 17.45 million CRV tokens — worth approximately $6.3 million — to Swiss Stake AG, a company led by Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov that oversees core protocol development.
The proposal aimed to fund infrastructure, security, and development work for Swiss Stake’s 25-person team but failed with 54.46% voting against and 45.54% in favor. Wallets linked to Yearn Finance and Convex Finance cast nearly 90% of the opposing votes, according to on-chain data.
Despite the rejection, CRV rose around 4% in the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader market, while the CoinDesk 20 index gained 0.35%.
Some DAO members flagged transparency concerns regarding prior expenditures. “The DAO deserves a detailed and transparent breakdown of expenses and should not authorize further funding until this information is provided,” one member wrote.
