Wintermute Launches Institution-Grade Tokenized Gold OTC Trading, Expects $15 Billion Market Size by 2026

BlockBeats News, February 17th, Market maker Wintermute announced the official launch of its over-the-counter (OTC) business for institutional-grade tokenized gold trading, supporting Pax Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT), the two major gold-backed tokens.

Wintermute stated that it will provide algorithmically optimized spot execution services to institutional clients, supporting the trading of PAXG and XAUT against USDT, USDC, fiat, and major cryptocurrencies, enabling on-chain real-time settlement and hedging.

Data shows that the tokenized gold trading volume reached $126 billion in Q4 2025, surpassing for the first time the trading volume of the top five gold ETFs during the same period. The on-chain gold market cap has grown by over 80% in the past three months, from $2.99 billion to $5.4 billion, reflecting the market's preference for 24/7 liquidity and instant settlement mechanism.

Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated that gold is undergoing a similar infrastructure upgrade process as the forex market, and with accelerated institutional adoption, the tokenized gold market size is expected to expand to $15 billion in 2026. Tokenized gold is part of the trend of real-world assets (RWA) migrating to the blockchain. Several institutions have previously predicted that the future scale of on-chain RWA could reach the trillion-dollar level in the coming years.