Tokenized Gold Trading Tops $90.7 Billion in Q1 2026, CoinGecko Reveals

Real-world assets have spent the last two years moving from a niche crypto narrative into something much closer to a serious market category, and CoinGecko’s latest report suggests that shift is no longer theoretical. In its newly released RWA Report 2026, CoinGecko says the revival of RWAs that began in 2024, along with improving regulatory clarity, has helped draw in larger traditional finance players and pushed tokenization into a faster phase of development.

The report argues that what started as early experiments has now matured into a set of working playbooks, and that 2025 was the year the space truly hit its stride. The headline numbers are hard to ignore. CoinGecko says the overall market value of tokenized RWAs climbed 256.7% over fifteen months, rising from $5.42 billion at the start of 2025 to $19.32 billion by March 31, 2026.

That means the sector has more than tripled since the beginning of last year. Even after that expansion, RWAs still remain much smaller than stablecoins, but the gap has narrowed: tokenized RWAs represented 6.4% of the stablecoin market size by the end of Q1 2026, up from 2.7% at the start of 2025.

CoinGecko says that this data shows RWA growth has outpaced stablecoins over the past year. Much of that growth came from tokenized Treasuries, which added $9 billion and still account for the largest share of the market, though their dominance has slipped as other asset classes gained ground.

Tokenized Commodities are Heating Up

That shift in composition matters because it shows the market is becoming more diverse. Tokenized Treasuries remain the biggest slice of the RWA pie, but their share fell from 73.7% to 67.2% as commodities, stocks and ETFs started taking up more room. By the end of Q1 2026, tokenized commodities made up 28.7% of the sector, tokenized stocks held 2.5%, and tokenized ETFs accounted for 1.5%.

In other words, the market is no longer just a treasury-token story. CoinGecko frames this as a sign that the RWA stack is broadening, with issuers now competing not just on who can launch fastest, but on regulatory footing, asset coverage and the ability to distribute products across major venues.

The strongest breakout on the commodity side came from gold. CoinGecko says tokenized commodities rose from $1.43 billion to $5.55 billion, a gain of 289.1%, with gold-backed tokens driving nearly all the action. Tether’s XAUT and Paxos’ PAXG accounted for 89.1% of the expansion, adding $1.87 billion and $1.80 billion, respectively.

PAXG gained share over the period, while XAUT remained the largest tokenized commodity overall. Smaller precious-metal tokens such as silver-backed KAG and KAU also grew in absolute terms, but their market share shrank as the gold trade soaked up most of the attention. CoinGecko says the rise tracks the broader rally in spot gold over the past year, which helped make tokenized gold one of the clearest winners inside the RWA boom.

Trading activity tells an even more striking story. In Q1 2026 alone, tokenized gold recorded $90.7 billion in spot trading volume, which already exceeded the $84.6 billion traded during the entire year of 2025. CoinGecko says that the surge shows both rising demand from crypto users looking for exposure to a strong-performing asset and better access through centralized exchanges, which still dominate spot activity for tokenized assets.

The report notes that monthly gold-token trading can swing sharply with market conditions, but the broader trend is unmistakable: tokenized gold has moved from curiosity to one of the most actively traded asset classes in the sector. PAXG and XAUT were again the main drivers, accounting for the bulk of trading volumes across the period.

Tokenized Stocks and ETFs Gaining Ground

Another notable development is the rapid rise of tokenized stocks. CoinGecko says the category, which only began rolling out in mid-2025, expanded from just $2.09 million on June 30, 2025, to $486.69 million by March 31, 2026. The first wave of launches came through Backed Finance’s xStocks, which brought names like Tesla, Circle, Nvidia and Alphabet onchain, and later launches from Ondo helped the category scale further.

Circle has emerged as the largest tokenized stock so far, with a market cap of $171.39 million, while Tesla, despite being an early leader, has faded somewhat from its peak. Nvidia, Alphabet and Strategy also hold meaningful positions, but the report makes clear that tech names have driven much of the early enthusiasm.

The same pattern is visible in trading volumes. Tokenized stocks generated $15.12 billion in spot volume in Q1 2026, surpassing the $14.84 billion recorded in the second half of 2025. CoinGecko says the asset class began with a strong initial burst, cooled briefly, and then put together four consecutive months above the $4 billion level.

Tesla, Circle and Nvidia were the largest contributors by trading activity. Even so, the report points out that volumes for the top five tokenized equities are still tiny when compared with their real-world counterparts, amounting to less than 1% of total trading volume in traditional stock markets. That gap suggests the market is still early, even if momentum is clearly building.

Tokenized ETFs are following a similar but slightly different path. CoinGecko says the category grew from only $0.62 million in July 2025 to $297.50 million by the end of Q1 2026. Unlike tokenized stocks, which have already produced a few standout winners, tokenized ETFs have grown in a more balanced way, with no single asset dominating the category.

Ondo’s tokenized SPDR S&P 500 and the iShares Silver Trust are the two largest names, but the report emphasizes that a sizable long tail of smaller ETFs has emerged as well. That broader spread may prove important over time, because it hints that tokenization is not just catching one high-profile equity trend, but opening the door to a wider range of packaged products that already have established demand in traditional markets.

Perhaps the clearest sign that RWAs have become more than a spot-market story is the explosion in perpetuals volume. CoinGecko says total RWA perpetuals trading volume reached $524.79 billion in Q1 2026 alone, more than the $313.02 billion recorded across all of 2025. That means the market is already on pace to more than double last year’s total.

The growth has been steady for four straight quarters, and while commodities still dominate, stocks and ETFs have been taking more share. The report also highlights the rise of Hyperliquid’s HIP-3, which has seen its share of monthly RWA perps volume climb rapidly since launch. Open interest has surged too, with daily RWA perps open interest rising to $6.68 billion by March 31, 2026, up from just $0.14 billion at the start of 2025.

Taken together, CoinGecko’s report paints a picture of a market that has moved well beyond its proof-of-concept stage. Treasuries still anchor the sector, but commodities, stocks, ETFs and perps are all gaining traction, and the rise in trading activity suggests that tokenization is becoming more than a balance-sheet story for institutions.

The report’s broader message is that the race is no longer simply about getting RWAs onchain; it is about who can win trust, build distribution and turn tokenization into something traders actually use at scale. If 2024 was the revival and 2025 was the breakout, CoinGecko’s latest data suggests 2026 may be the year RWAs start looking like a market in their own right.