Whale snaps up $7M in XAUT amid market moves

Bybit sent out several transactions of XAUT tokens, underscoring rising demand for tokenized gold. A whale accumulated a growing XAUT portfolio valued at over $7M. 

Bybit became part of the increasing demand for Tether’s tokenized gold, XAUT. The exchange’s hot wallet started sending out XAUT transactions in the past day, leading to a whale address accumulating tokenized gold. 

The recent shift in narratives led crypto investors to switch to metals. Since XAUT is the most easily available token, it has found renewed demand and trading volumes. The whale’s portfolio rose to $6.95M after the recent records of gold on traditional markets. 

The whale’s latest purchase was for 450 XAUT, each representing one ounce of gold, directly transferred from Bybit’s hot wallet. The recipient wallet was newly created and only funded with enough ETH to facilitate the transfers with gas fees. 

XAUT volumes increase to a one-month high

In the past month, XAUT volumes gradually grew as gold set a series of price records. Volumes expanded to $854M, only surpassed by an anomalous spike in November. Interest in XAUT coincided with slower performance for BTC and even leading altcoins. 

Interest in XAUT rose on spot exchanges, as Tether recalled its dedication to storing physical gold, expanding the gold stocks, and moving into mining.

XAUT traded at a slight premium to spot gold, at $5,542.07, reflecting the general demand for easy on-chain access. Spot gold reached $5,537.78, boosted by a mix of speculation and a hedge-against-inflation narrative. 

The accumulation of XAUT also signals that crypto traders still seek a market promising growth and a lower risk of drawdowns. The recent XAUT buying and speculative trading of other gold-backed tokens followed a prolonged BTC drawdown. The leading coin has gone for 115 days with no new all-time high, and is nearly 30% down from its cycle peak.

XAUT open interest rises to all-time highs

XAUT goes beyond spot demand, recently expanding its derivative open interest. Bybit remains the main venue for XAUT speculation, carrying $177.9M in open interest. In total, XAUT positions expanded to a record of $194M. 

Until recently, metal-backed tokens in crypto were relatively niche and a test case for tokenization. Silver still does not have a metal-backed token, although price speculation has emerged on derivative exchanges, including Hyperliquid. 

XAUT is predominantly longed by traders, who expect the gold rally to continue beyond speculation into full repricing. 

Hyperliquid supports speculation for PAXG, another major gold-backed token by Paxos. Whales carry over 85% in long positions, expecting gold’s expansion. 

Currently, gold-backed tokens are a small fraction of the crypto market, and their upside depends on the general TradFi trading of gold futures and spot markets. However, searches are accelerating for the ticker, according to CoinGecko data. 

Mindshare for XAUT also rallied by 164% in the past day. The token still has a limited presence on social media, but a new trend may be emerging as traders seek the security of metals in tokenized form.

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