Former Credit Suisse CIO: Tokenized gold underpins "almost 100% price discovery" during CME closures over the weekend.

Iggy Ioppe, former Chief Investment Officer of Credit Suisse, stated that during the period from the close of CME Group gold futures trading on Friday at 5:00 PM (Eastern Time) to its reopening at 6:00 PM on Sunday, almost all publicly visible gold price formation occurred on the on-chain market. He pointed out that during this window, regulated futures markets were suspended, and while over-the-counter (OTC) trading in Asia was active, it lacked transparency. Therefore, tokenized gold assets such as PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUt) became the only continuously tradable public markets. "From the perspective of publicly visible price formation, the on-chain market accounted for almost 100% of the weekend price discovery." When CME resumed trading, futures prices typically aligned with the volatility already occurring on the on-chain market. Data shows that the market capitalization of tokenized gold has risen to $4.4 billion, an increase of approximately $2.8 billion over the past year, representing a growth of 177%, far exceeding the performance of most spot gold ETFs. The total trading volume for 2025 was approximately $178 billion, with a peak of over $126 billion in the fourth quarter alone, second only to SPDR Gold Shares in terms of trading volume. On Saturday, amid escalating geopolitical tensions following US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran, tokenized gold prices rose briefly, with XAUt briefly surpassing $5450 and PAXG approaching $5536, while Bitcoin and Ethereum retreated in tandem. Current major participants include market makers, cross-market liquidity providers, and crypto-native macro traders, who utilize tokenized gold for arbitrage, staking, hedging, and yield strategies. Some institutions also monitor on-chain gold price movements over the weekend to assess the "gap risk" before the CME market opens, but mostly treat it as a reference signal rather than a direct basis for establishing positions. (Cointelegraph)