Tokenized gold could be one of the most effective ways to onboard new users into crypto. Its market size has grown 3x since the beginning of 2025. In many emerging markets, physical gold is the most trusted and generational inflation hedge. However, storing and trading physical gold comes with significant barriers: ▸ Domestic gold prices often have huge premiums over the global spot ▸ Very high buy/sell spreads ▸ Good day-to-day liquidity but heavy slippage ▸ Widespread counterfeit gold ▸ Risk of theft or loss Tokenized gold solves almost all of all problems: ▸ Price tracks the global spot price almost perfectly ▸ Deep liquidity (supported on major CEXs) ▸ No counterfeit risk, no physical theft (only wallet/private-key risk) As these advantages become widely known, many people will move a portion of their physical gold on-chain. The biggest game-changer is bringing defi to this asset class. Can you collateralize your physical gold at a traditional bank and borrow against it? In almost every country, the answer is no, or it’s extremely difficult and limited. On defi? It’s already standard. Projects like @Paxos and @Theo_Network are building gold 3.0 to turn it into yield-generating, borrowable collateral. Defi craves deep, trusted liquidity, and tokenized gold is the perfect candidate.